"Tennis" can't quite believe what it's seeing
In defeating Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon final, Tennis' new superstar Carlos Alcaraz shifts the tectonic plates of a sport.
Since the beginning of Wimbledon, two weeks ago, a potential final match between Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz has been the destiny that “tennis” has been hoping, even willing for. These are the two best players in the world. Clashes between the top two seeds in a grand slam always have an satisfying air of completeness. But yesterday’s final, after a pointedly stormy two weeks at the all England club, had a tectonic aura about it. As a tennis watcher and player ever since I was a kid, I settled in for the afternoon hoping to witness an epic match and, perhaps, a transformative moment in sport.
1pm Sunday 16th July 2023 - Wimbledon is one of the crown jewels of British sport. Unlike most of the others, the BBC has managed to keep a hold of the coverage. Therefore, in my consciousness, the first two weeks of July remain the defining mid-point of summer. The BBC approach to presenting Wimbledon hasn’t really changed much over the years. One of the channel’s iconic theme tunes underscores a digitally created reminder of the champions through the years. Then it’s straight into the first of many a montage: “The merging of eras”, is the tag line. BBC knows the story, all tennis fans do. But its satisfying to have its storyfied, to have the stakes confirmed, through symbolism and rhetoric. “A generation of titans thrown together in an era unrivalled in all of history” portends the weighty narrator. “A final for the ages”.
1:39 - John McEnroe is setting up the recent context of this match. Until last month’s French open, the two best players in the world had not met each other for some 18 months. Were we going to be cruelly denied this generational clash? The seedings at Roland Garros had them meeting in the semi-final. “Tennis” wanted the answer to the question: what happens when Carlos is Djoko-tested. It happened. They reached their seeding and faced off. For two shared sets they teased the epic everyone was waiting for. But Alcaraz cramped badly in his hand and then his legs at the beginning of the third set. His dynamism drained away almost instantly. He finished the match but Djokovic ran out an easy winner. Afterwards Alcaraz revealed acute nerves that potentially affected him. The mere reputation of Djokovic perhaps taking its toll. Tension was so acute it manifested a physical fatigue the young Spaniard had never experienced before, and to a degree undermined the superhuman mythos that had already built up in his short career. Denied an answer to the question of whether Alcaraz could take down Djokovic on one of tennis’s major stages, merely served to amplify the hype, and the anticipation of their next battle. Now, meeting at Wimbledon, and in the final, the sense of occasion is almost unbearable. As if thinking the hype might dissipate, McEnroe with a kind of giddiness, sums it up: “I can’t tell you how excited I am for this match”.
2.00 - The players come out of the locker room. Alcaraz was waiting, Djokovic, as champion, emerges from the members door. They share a smile. But Djokovic takes the lead. As if to say, “I know the way to centre court”. They come into the arena to the expected ovation. Alcaraz looks the more nervous, half smiling with an almost apologetic wave. The Serbian looks relax, surveying a so familiar scene. Smiles again as they meet at the net, the umpire and guests look more nervous. The coin toss takes place followed by a customary photo to the banks of photographer lining the court. There is easy closeness, a genuine respect.
2:06 - Warm up.
As they go through the preliminaries, I’m thinking about the wider context of the match. Over the last 20 years mens tennis has been dominated by the so-called big three: Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal and Novak Djokovic. The have 64 grand slam titles between 2003 and 2022 (when Federer retired). The statistical dominance is overwhelming and has provoked endless hours of GOAT munching (who is the greatest of all time is perhaps the most polarising debate among tennis fans). What’s more fascinating to me though, are the differing game-styles and personalities, and how there rivalries derive from overlapping trajectories that have brought us to this potential turning point. And then, in light of this history, how the specificity of Alcaraz’ arrival is being perceived by “tennis”
14:12 Djokovic to serve. Missed return by Alcaraz - 15-0.
Roger Federer, for a time, made it seem like tennis was completed. The most gifted, aesthetically beautiful player seemed to be the physical manifestation of tennis as an amalgam of sport/art/history. After winning his first Wimbledon in 2003, Federer created an aura of invincibility that lasted about 18 months. The pleasure in watching him often became less about the contest and more about seeing this racketed Monet, paint pictures of sublime grace and power.
14:22 Alcaraz is 0-40 down in his first service game with a series of nervous unforced errors. Djokovic breaks immediately with deep precise return. 2-0
In the documentary Strokes of Genius, the emergence of Nadal as a rival to Federer is read in pseudo-religious terms: (I’m paraphrasing);
"It was as if the tennis Gods thought the game was becoming unbalanced. They produced Nadal, a player with a very specific type of game, to disrupt the serene dominance of the the Swiss”.
This duopoly could have continued indefinitely for many a tennis fan, a fraternal relationship between two players who eventually recognised and embraced their influence on each other. A respect and friendship also set the tone for the culture of tennis. Other players rarely got a look in at the majors, and at times it didn’t seem like they minded too much.
14:30 - Alcaraz attempts an audacious “tweener” (between the legs) lob that lands just beyond the baseline. It lands just long. Djokovic smiles and wags his finger. Djokovic holds. 3-0.
Djokovic has been the outsider, the disruptor. In the shadow of Federer and Nadal, even when beating them on court and racking up superiors records over time. Djokovic is arguably the most interesting of the big 3. Growing up during the war in Serbia, there’s a steel and maybe even a chip on the shoulder. A rancour that the story of Djokovic’s rise is not given its due attention. That he didn’t have the childhood advantages of his peers. Certainly, in his home country, there seems to a feeling of the anointed invested in Djokovic. One of his earliest coaches called him a golden child. His own father has said said he’s delivered by God. At 23 Grand slams he’s the all time leader (Nadal 21, Federer 20). He won the first two slams of this year and is therefore, at 36, on course for the holy grail of tennis: The Grand Slam. No male player has won all four majors in one year since Rod Laver in 1969.
14:32 Brad Pitt is watching.
Djokovic has looked invincible in six matches leading up to the final. In the Semi, he made another young pretender - the Italian Yannick Sinner - look toothless. It’s a familiar story. In two decades the Big 3 have seen off two rosters of “next generation” players (Dimitrov, Nishikori, Raonic were one batch, Thiem, Zverev, Stitsipas, Rublev were the next). Djokovic in particular seems to revel in being the eternal denier. He has menacingly played up to it in interviews in this tournament. “They want to win, but it ain’t happening” is a power soundbite if ever their was one.
14.40 - Djokovic is 5-0 up. Alcaraz looks nervous and impotent, being completely neutralised by a relentless Serbian.
Enter Carlos Alcaraz. 20 years old from El Palmar in Spain. He won last year’s US Open aged 19, along with four Masters series titles (the highest profile tournaments after the slams) and is the current world No.1. He has captured the imagination of the tennis world like no one since Federer. The intensity of adoration for Alcaraz is an unnerving phenomenon. His results and youth are foundational of course. But it’s somehow that he has so quickly come to embody the evolution of the sport, and provided the answer to the question what’s next. It has been said by various commentators, that it seems as though he is designed as an hybrid of best traits of the big 3.
14:44 - Alcaraz in on the board with running down the line winner. The crowd reacts with an awkward mix of sympathy applause and call to lift the spaniard, 5-1. Despite winning the game he rants to his box in Spanish.
They say timing is everything. Maybe it’s true in life but it’s definitely the case in sport. Timing is the mechanism of the performed sporting action, the movement of body synching with dynamics of the game. It also works in thinking about the wider context. That Alcaraz has emerged just at the tail end of the big 3 era is ideal for him. With Federer gone and Nadal going, he only has Djokovic to worry about. Part of the problem for the rest of the field in mens tennis over the last 20 years was that two, maybe even all three of Federer, Nadal and Djokovic would have to be overcome to win a title. Yes, Alcaraz has win 6 matches to get to a grand slam final, but in reality his main focus and barrier to victory, is solely Djokovic.
14.47 - Djokovic takes the first set 6-1. This is long way from the epic, generational match narrative bring hyped.
The reaction to Alcaraz in the media and then by osmosis, the public, is another ingredient to the final. After many false dawns, the future of tennis has become clear. The question of what will happen post-big 3, has been the subject of various forms of hand wringing in the tennis world. How do you follow up an era where the three greatest players of all time have so totally shaped and dominated the form, culture and economics of an elite sport. Singular figures in other sports dominate, and the question is always asked, what’s next? But in tennis it’s seemed especially acute. The inauthenticity of the next “gen” projects have been exposed by Alcaraz. He hasn’t needed a corporate PR structure to big him up, it’s just obvious when you watch him. I was at Queens, the lead up tournament to Wimbledon, which Alcaraz won (only his second tournament on grass). People were jostling for standing room to watch him practice. Apparently, the hospitality takings in the bars and restaurants were down every time he was on court (there is a notorious “nice day out” element to British tennis culture, leaving expensive empty seats). Fascination with the Spaniard has a feverish, messianic quality, as though tennis can’t quite believe what it’s seeing.
14:59 - Alcaraz frames a shot giving Djokovic awkward ball which he misses cross court. Djokovic sarcastically claps the crowd for cheering the miss. Alcaraz breaks. The crowd explodes. 2-0 Alcaraz (Second set).
David Windram writing in the Guardian on sporting prodigies, cites an allure that goes beyond mere “greatness”:
The sporting prodigy feels exotic, something so rarely seen that it causes rational people to lose all sense of perspective. We are drawn to them. If we knew about them before others did, we become possessive. Every success for them is a success for us.
Alcaraz’s spectacular, super-human game is, in itself, the framework. Of course, it’s constituted through the familiar serves, forehands, backhands etc etc. But it’s the how as much as the what that moves the spectator. Tennis is my favourite sport to watch on TV because the geometry of the court so clearly defines the parameters of play, and this maps onto the television. Then the two players expand the dimensions of space and time, with the lines of the court as a constant reference point. And they do this through struggle against one another. Ironically, shots designed to attack, destabilise and even bypass an opponent can, in fact, set up a counter strike. So a player can end up enabling an adversary’s brilliance. It’s why match-ups are so key. Through Alcaraz ,“Tennis” seems to elicit a mix of innocent, playful joy, and excited disbelief in witnessing both the impossible made real, and a sport reimagined, when it seemed so set.
15:07 - Djokovic breaks back immediately and delivers a signature roar directly at the crowd. It’s a guttural exclamation of bitter animosity.
Teenage sensations are part of tennis’ fabric. More so in women’s tennis then mens. Evert, Austin, Graf, Seles, Williams, Sharapova, Swiatek and, most recently Raducanu all won Majors in their teens. In the men’s game, Borg and McEnroe were teenage champions. As were Michael Chang and Mats Wilander. It’s Boris Becker who sits in my mind as having a biggest impact. He was 17 when he won Wimbledon in 1985, I was 11. His bulldozing power, diving and innocent exuberance seemed to transform tennis physically, aesthetically, even materially. The soft brittleness of wood powered strokes made redundant by the tensile strength of graphite. Serve-volley was in place, Becker’s canon delivery and net-rushing the pattern that defined 3 Wimbledon wins in 7 finals.
15:28 - 3-3 Second set - one break each. Alcaraz is working his way into the rallies but Djokovic is strong and consistent. You feel he desperately needs this set.
Describing Alcaraz as a “teenage sensation” is to not fully understand the parameters of the game he possesses at this age. He is arguably the most complete player in tennis right now. Certainly he is the most complete teenager ever. Complete, to me, means every aspect of his game is fully developed and, under his command, a weapon. Baseball uses the term “5 tool guy” to describe a complete player. It means a player can hit, hit for power, run, field and throw. Could this be translated over to tennis? The 5-tools would be serve, return, backhand, forehand, and movement. But there are more elements that need be considered in tennis (probably also true of baseball). The volley, dropshot, lob, and smash are technical shots that are part of the player’s armoury. Then there are intangible criteria such as tennis IQ, improvisation and stamina. Alcaraz’s completeness is perhaps the most frighteningly, otherworldly aspect of his talent. The only potential weakness in the context of today’s match is his lack of experience on grass. This is only his third tournament on the most specialised idiosyncratic, surface.
15:28 - Andrew Castle is my least favourite commentator; his babbling banalities are an ironic ode to Alan Partridge. He’s complaining about Djokovic running over the shot clock and the umpire letting him get away with it. “Something must be done” he says with Daily Mail-esque sanctimony. To be honest, I grudgingly admit he has a point.
It is certainly the case the Djokovic is a complete player. But his game has been honed over the years, adapting and improving to manifest an awesome efficiency. At times it’s difficult to see the “identity” of Djokovic’s game. It’s like all facets have been refined to their maximum potential, but made devoid of any panache. I remember watching him live at the O2 around 4 years ago in the world tour finals. He stoically dismantled Nadal in a performance that had something of the video game about it. Side to side, ball after ball, it seemed like he never missed. The Djokovic serve is perhaps the shot that most under-rated in all of tennis. He underwent elbow surgery and had to modify his action. For the rebuild he employed one of the greatest servers of all time: Goran Ivanisevic. The toss is slightly lower now with the elbow and wrist more fluid through the stroke. He’s not an overpowering server but his accuracy and mix of speeds and spins makes it highly effective.
3.50 5-5. Alcaraz has some opportunities with Djokovic making several unforced errors. But the Serbian stretches to make a couple of impossible balls and then enlists the help of the net cord. He’s now laughing directly with a woman in the crowd sporting a Nole T-Shirt.
What the big three will do after they retire is an interesting question. Federer is already adopting the role of corporate philanthropist, visibly leveraging his brand for charity projects and high-end luxury products. Nadal seems like he’ll just be content back in Mallorca. Managing his tennis academy, fishing, golfing and being a low key family man. You could see Djokovic moving into politics. Certainly there is a strong nationalist affinity to his character. It would not be surprising to witnes this elite, global star, whose career has afforded the all benefits of a millionaire internationalist lifestyle, promoting a rather narrow perception of national identity. Djokovic’s views on politics, social issues and health, most pointedly the Covid-19 vaccine, add to the controversy and the enigma.
3.54 - Alcaraz cranks up the service power to take himself 6-5 up.
Djokovic has his ardent supporters. Just go on Twitter and post some criticism of him, you’ll meet them. But he isn’t universally loved in the way that Federer and Nadal were. This is paradoxically a source of anxiety, even disappointment for Serbian, but it’s also the fuel he uses to channel a kind of focused anger into his tennis. Particularly in moments of acute stress.
4.00pm - Tie break. Djokovic jumps to a 3-0 lead, but is pulled back to 3-3 with an ill-conceived and poorly executed drop shop. Alcaraz brings out the forehand dropshot to take a 5-4 lead. Djokovic finally gets the time violation, and the crowd applauds. It has definitely had been coming. Alcaraz misses a stretching volley, and on the next point is passed when trying to sneak into net. It’s 6-5. (set point Djokovic). The crowd is chanting Nole. Alcaraz looks up to his box for affirmation, cut to Juan Carlos Ferrero who offers a low-key, empathetic nod.
Juan Carlos Ferrero, Alcaraz’s coach and a former world number 1, cuts an impressive figure. Imagine if Yoda was recast as 90s male model. In an prematch interview, the calm stillness and smooth voice, is at odds with the interviewer’s hype-laden questions. Carlos has to not worry about numbers and aura of Djokovic, says JCF. Obvious, but difficult. Much is made of the master/apprentice dynamic in tennis. In recent years many top players have utilised what has been known as super-coach. Andy Murray with Ivan Lendl, and Djokovic himself with, first Boris Becker, and then Ivanisevic are the obvious examples. Juan Carlos Ferrero famously ditched Alexander Zverev for purportedly not appreciating the German’s work ethic. There seems to be fundamental trust at the heart of Alcaraz/Ferrero bond. The BBC show a recording of Alcaraz practicing with JCF looking on. Stroking his chin Ferrero offers some words after his player thrashes a forehand. Alcaraz nods and smiles. In the match the constant gestural dialogue with JCF: glances, points, comments (coaching has recently been permitted in tennis). Serenity maybe his personality but it clearly has a design: to counteract the pressure.
4.08 But the next two points Djokovic dumps two unforced backhand errors in the net to give Alcaraz set point. The tension is immense.
Amazing! Djokovic serves out wide to the backhand, Alcaraz stretches and swats the ball past the rooted Djokovic. Alcaraz cups his ear and orchestrates the standing ovation. He hasn’t played all that well but it’s one set all.
Individual points in tennis are won or lost quickly and usually without much specific reflection. A double-fault is worth the same as 36 shot rally ending on a winner. The direct celebration and orchestration - a kind parasocial cultivation - has become more evident in tennis. The aesthetics and psychology of the sporting celebration is an interesting subject in its own right. It tells you something about the player and the message that they wants to send to the opponent, and the witnesses.
4.15 - Alcaraz breaks immediately after several Djokovic errors for 1-0. He seems immediately freer that in the first 2 sets. The Serbian remonstrates with the umpire about the pervious time violation.
Federer rarely over celebrated specific point and therefore didn’t have a signature “look” (the arms out wide and chest thrust out after a genius tweener in the USOpen v Djokovic is the closest). Nadal’s bicep curling “Vamos”, with added leg action, was definitely his squash-buckling signal. Djokovic in this tournament has been expanding his repertoire of confrontation, leaning into sarcastic gestures when the crowds are against him. The roar of defiance is though, is clearly his signature.
4.27 Alcaraz is starting to play to the crowd more. Some incredible rallies in the next Djokovic service game. After being brought in by a Djokovic drop shot, he pokes a forehand down the line and then slam dunks Djokovic’s attempted lob. He raises a clinch fist towards coach JCF. But with a couple of well placed serves Djokovic gets out of the game. 2-1 (third set).
Alcaraz liberally employs both the fist pump and the racket shake; old and new gestures respectively. He’s also not afraid to call on the crowd, one hand to his ear, asking for applause. But his signature move is a finger point followed by an initial look towards JCF, before he turns and lets the crowd in. His expression often betrays a wide-eyed amazement: “did you see what I just did”. Once again a call to the transcendence of prodigy, or the superhero discovering their power.
5.00 Alcaraz breaks again for 4-1 - A leviathan game of 27 minutes and 14 Deuces, in which both men struggled with the wind, littered unforced errors all over SW19, but also come up with some incredible winners. Timing of the stokes is difficult and it is effecting the pure spectacle. But it’s adding to the tension. The game also contained a lengthy exchange between Djokovic and the umpire about the shot clock.
In David Foster Wallace’s widely cited article Roger Federer Both Flesh and Not begins the piece citing “Federer Moments”:
These are times, watching the young Swiss at play, when the jaw drops and eyes protrude and sounds are made that bring spouses in from other rooms to see if you’re OK.
Alcaraz provoke similar reactions. It’s the combination of ostentatious guile and overwhelming power that elicits the gasps. The sound the crowd makes in these moments is, well, orgasmic.
5.09 After the mammoth game 5 the next 2 games go in shot order with Djokovic losing his serve again. Alcaraz now looks truly focused and Djokovic’s pressure game is lacking strength. He’s also lost the edge of animosity to the crowd that seemed to fuel the first couple of sets. Djokovic goes off for a bathroom break, and a pep talk no doubt.
My girlfriend, Bea, has been going in and out of the room during the whole match. She’s gotten into tennis vicariously, perhaps unavoidably, because of me (if you can’t beat em, join em). The Netflix documentary series Break Point as been another access point. Seeing the players as characters in a drama imbues a context for understanding why sport matters to people. Both for players and watchers. But the main attraction is Alcaraz, she has become an unswerving fan. Everything tennis is defined through lens of Alcaraz winning. She can’t sit down and watch his match for long though, because of the anxiety that he might lose. The perspective of the fan is fascinating to me because I don’t tend to get invested who is winning and losing in that way. In every sporting contest, on any given day, someone will win someone will lose. It’s the moments that I watch sport for. Granted, you do gravitate to players that provide the most spectacular moments.
5.20 Alcaraz is all over the court now, and Djokovic is struggling to find a way through. He doesn’t help himself with a poor line challenge in the middle of a rally. A muscled Alcaraz forehand causes the Serbian to collapse into the splits. But Djokovic is up and saves a couple of break points to hold. He was hanging on though.
Back in 2021, when Bea was first getting into tennis, and Alcaraz was emerging the hottest thing, I first realised that I was witnessing the future of the sport. She asked me how could I tell that. I replied because he’s doing things that even the big 3 are not. He’s inventing a new type of game. He’s combining elements of stoke play, movement and imagination that no one else is able to do. “Alcarazamazz” tennis as it has been nicknamed on The Tennis Podcast.
17.42 At 0-30 Djokovic comes into the net off a short ball. Alcaraz attempts the lob, but Djokovic smashes. Alcaraz takes one step right a swipes forehand bullet cross-court. The stroke ellicits “that” gasp from the crowd. Two shots later he does it again passing the incoming Djokovic to take the game to deuce. There’s no extra-curricular engagement from the Serbian now. He’s bedding in with total focus. Two solid points gives him the hold.
The changing of the guard is a familiar generic trope in the cycles of sporting history. Borg losing to McEnroe in the US Open in 81, to some degree hastend the Swede’s retirement, aged 25. Another moment that is often talked about is Federer’s defeat of Sampras in 2001. The 19-year old Federer overcame Sampras with a more finessed version of his serve/volly blueprint. The impact of this win however, would not be fully felt for two more years after Federer won Wimbledon in 2003.
17.50 Djokovic breaks. The Serbian is not done yet. The back bone of his game, consistent returning, puts the pressure on an increasingly desperate Alcaraz. The Serb turns and blows a vitriolic kiss to someone in the crowd. He was never just going to give it away.
The 2008 final between Federer and Nadal was something of a changing of the guard, in that Nadal, after dominating the Swiss on his favoured surface of clay, finally beat him at Wimbledon on grass, taking the no.1 spot in the process. But both players played on. Their rivalry continued to build and adapted once again with Djokovic forcing his way into the mix. In that sense, the era didn’t end, it was just rebooted.
18:02 Djokovic takes the fourth set 6-3 by breaking Alcaraz to 15. The Serbian has regained his composure. His mental strength is quite amazing. Along with a running strop with the crowd, he’s gone back to the efficient no errors tennis to unfussily take us the distance. We have the five set epic everyone craved.
18:17 Djokovic takes the opening game of the final set saving a set point. He gives a steely fist bump towards his box. Of the two, you have to say the 36 year-old looks the fresher. Alcaraz similarly holds with a breakpoint save. He hammers a forehand down the line to take the game. VAMOS is screamed. Crowd’s jump to their feet.
With Federer’s emotional retirement, and Nadal out injured saying next year will be his last, there has arguably been something of a melancholia surrounding tennis. Djokovic fans would undoubtedly disagree, but maybe his efficient brilliance, and his relentless assent to the top of the grand slam list, somehow lacks the “poetry”. The desperation for love and appreciation, that Federer and/or Nadal received without trying, is not fairytale many tennis lovers wanted. Maybe Djokovic is harshly judged. But it’s clear that Alcaraz is a rejuvenating force, he give us permission to accept the end of the greatest era. And it would be poetic to have that singular moment of closure.
18.28 Alcaraz breaks. Djokovic annihilates his racket into the net post, after a sensational rally, in which he slipped, recovered but is then passed with a laser beam Alcaraz backhand to lose his serve. He’s was lucky there with that extreme show of frustration. Shards of carbon fibre exploded from the disintegrating racquet. He been defaulted before and that could have easily hurt one of the ball boys. The Spaniard follows this up with a love game, to lead 3-1.
18.42 Two hard fought holds. Alcaraz is in the ascendency but the pressure must be unbearable. Alcaraz destroys a couple of cross-court forehands to try to get the double break but Djokovic’s is the manifestation of solidity. 4-3.
18.46. 5-3 Alcaraz. A wrong-footing forehand drop flummoxes everyone in the Stadium. Including Djokovic. This is followed by an ace out wide. The Spaniard is a game away.
As I’m typing this I can’t quite believe that the final is playing out in they way that “tennis” (and I) was craving. The match has been a rollercoaster of momentum swings and rewritten plot lines. Support has, pointedly, not been out and out for Alcaraz, although Djokovic again has tried to feed off the perceived animosity towards him, at times acting to manufacture it. Whatever turns out now, this match will be understood as generation pivot. A battle forged in the fires of the sport’s past, present and future.
18.48 - The consummate professional, Djokovic holds to 15 and therefore asks the question. Alcaraz sits at the change-over, contemplating that Wimbledon title is 4 points away. He nods to his box. JCF tries to exude total serenity. Alcaraz is up to serve.
18.50 - Alcaraz dumps a drop shot into the net. But then unbelievably plays another on the next point and then lobs Djokovic. The next two points are shared. But Djokovic hits his next return long. Match point Alcaraz.
18.53. Alcaraz makes the first serve and Djokovic can only manage a mid-court return. Alcaraz whips a cross-court forehand. Djokovic is there, but he can only put his backhand into the net. Alcaraz falls on back and rolls over, head in hands. He screams Vamos at his box and the crowd. It’s a picture of euphoric disbelief. He jumps up and heads to the net where he and Djokovic embrace. Carlos Alcaraz is the Wimbledon Champion.
Postscript
Reviewing this piece in light of post-Wimbledon Monday morning blues, the simple changing of the guard narrative seems slightly mis-applied. Djokovic isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. And we already knew Alcaraz was the future of tennis. It’s unlikely this is their final match. What we could be witnessing is a short, intense bonus rivalry. A generational struggle with the final protagonist of the big 3 era fighting to prolong the legacy, and younger champion having to conjure more otherworldly tennis to cement his no.1 position.
But this victory has to be deemed symbolic, a moment of renewal. When the sport entered a new phase with a new defining figure.