Carlos Alcaraz – Victoria Jones/Pa Wire/Dpa
The Spanish tennis player is number one in London after five hours of final and raises his second ‘Grand Slam’
MADRID, 16 (EUROPA PRESS)
The Spanish tennis player Carlos Alcaraz was proclaimed champion of the Wimbledon tournament, the third ‘Grand Slam’ of the season and which is played on grass in London (United Kingdom), by beating the Serbian Novak Djokovic 1-6 in the final this Sunday, 7-6(6), 6-1, 3-6, 6-4.
Alcaraz was the best in the world, number one, against the best favorite in history. Djokovic, who was looking for his fifth title in a row on London grass, his eighth in total and his 24th ‘big’, knelt before the Spaniard, the same one who a month ago was overwhelmed by the pressure in the Roland Garros semifinals.
The progression of the Murcian has no end, in just two years as a professional. After winning his first title on grass three weeks ago at Queen’s, the man from El Palmar brought out an expert repertoire to overcome the Serb’s best start. With nerves of steel this time, the Spaniard turned around the final despite suffering the reaction of the Serbian giant in an epic fourth quarter.
In the fifth set and after almost five hours of final, Alcaraz won his second ‘big’ after the 2022 US Open, the sixth title of 2023 and the 12th in total. At 20, the pupil of Juan Carlos Ferrero and defender of the number one in the world against number two stopped the champion this year from Australia and Roland Garros, a ‘Nole’ who had to bow to the relay that is coming in Alcaraz .
On Center Court at the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club, with movie stars in the stands like Brad Pitt, Hugh Jackman, Ariana Grande, Andrew Garfield, Tom Hiddleston, Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz, the glitter moved onto the grass for Spanish tennis celebrated a third male winner on the London grass after Manolo Santana (1966) and Rafa Nadal (2008 and 2010).
However, the first set only had a Serbian accent, since Alcaraz started very uncomfortable and conceded two ‘breaks’ in a row. Despite the fact that the Murcian enjoyed a breaking ball in the opening game, he did not materialize it and then conceded those two. It took the tennis player from El Palmar half an hour to warm up, to shake off his nerves, although he had already lost the first set.
The ghost of another nervous breakdown was already haunting the stadium, as had happened to Alcaraz precisely against Djokovic in his Roland Garros semifinal played a month ago. That time that resulted in cramps in his legs, but the sixth game of this Wimbledon final calmed the box of the palmareño.
After winning it (1-5), and although he gave up the first set (1-6), Alcaraz changed the dynamics. There was no trace in the second set of the weak offensive display that he had shown in the previous set. At serve, he went up 1-0 and then broke the rival service (2-0). However, on the other side of the net was a player who continues to oppose being the best of all time.
In search of his ‘great’ number 24, the man who accumulates the most in all of history, Djokovic returned the ‘break’ (2-1) and kept calm to save another break option in the fourth game (2-2) . From then on, neither of them gave their adversary more chances to break; a sudden sudden death was what decided the set in favor of a tightrope walker Alcaraz.
‘Nole’ started it like an exhalation, standing 0-3 up, knowing that he had won 15 ‘tie-breaks’ consecutively in a ‘Grand Slam’. But ahead was a precocious prodigy, who evened the contest and turned the score to 5-4 after a drop shot that held his breath from Center Court.
The man from El Palmar closed that sudden death 8-6, having crushed his opponent’s backhand thanks to an inverted forehand that he repeated over and over again. Alcaraz then began to enjoy, not like in Paris a month ago or in the first set, and the script ended up changing. The Spaniard took advantage of the Serb’s downturn not without sweating.
The initial ‘break’ of the third set was accompanied by a second marathon, in a fifth game of 25 minutes and the break for the Spanish to the seventh ball of ‘break’. ‘Nole’, more physically demanding, delivered the partial and looked for solutions to the Murcian gale. The Serb rallied and got the best version of himself back, hitting back in another long fifth game.
There the ‘Jackal’ resurfaced but the Murcian did not wrinkle at the decisive moment. The fifth set served the icing on the cake to the stellar match that everyone was waiting for, the two best tennis players of the moment in a tough exchange. Alcaraz, with his left until the end, scared away the memories of Roland Garros again and achieved the ‘break’ in the third game, with Djokovic bursting the racket with the net post.
The service worked for the Spaniard, even if it was with a second serve, and in the physical, mental and tennis battle the young prodigy from El Palmar won the tennis and Wimbledon legend, who had not lost a match in the English center for 10 years. In his fourth tournament on grass, in his first final at the All England Tennis Club, Alcaraz conquered the Cathedral to add to a meteoric career.