Alcaraz defends Wimbledon title, beats Djokovic again in final

The 137th edition of Wimbledon culminated on Sunday afternoon. The men’s singles final between Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic saw the winner after just three sets. The Spaniard won the first two 6:2 and the third in a tiebreak. He successfully defended last year’s triumph.

• Alcaraz and Djokovic met again in the Wimbledon final for the sixth time on the circuit

• The Spaniard clearly won the first two sets

• He also took the dramatic end of the third set to dominate tennis’ most famous tournament for the second time

These representatives of two different tennis generations competed on the ATP circuit for the sixth time. The Serbian holder of 24 Grand Slam titles went into the match with a slightly better record of 3:2, having dominated the last two duels. It happened last August in the final in Cincinnati and at the Tournament of Champions in Turin in November.

Sunday’s clash for one of the sport’s most valuable trophies was a repeat of last year’s Wimbledon final in terms of line-up. Back then, it was the Spanish youngster Carlos Alcaraz, who had already triumphed at the US Open and the French Open, who won after five sets.

Thirty-seven-year-old Djokovic, the world number two, made his appearance at the All England Club shortly after undergoing surgery on his meniscus, which he injured at the Paris Grand Slam. Nevertheless, he got through Vit Kopriva, Jacob Fearnley, Alexei Popyrin, Holger Rune, Alex de Minaur without a fight and even beat Lorenzo Musetti in the semi-finals.

Defending champion Alcaraz, as a ranked number three, successively defeated Mark Lajal, Aleksandar Vukic, Frances Tiafoe, Ugo Humbert, Tommy Paul and Daniil Medvedev. And in the first final set, he also had the upper hand from the start in front of a packed Centre Court crowd.

He took his fifth break point in the opening 13 minutes and quickly built up a lead. His more experienced opponent was unable to respond, plus Alcaraz took his serve away again later in the set. He didn’t let the two break points he had gained slip away and won 6:2.

The twenty-one-year-old Spaniard continued to dominate the next game with his quality return. The Serbian was unable to find a proper answer to the early deficit and let his opponent take advantage of a break point opportunity in the seventh game with a double fault of his own. Alcaraz thus won again 6:2.

The third set offered a different development. Djokovic kept pace with his rival for a long time, but at 4: 4 Alcaraz broke back. However, he did not add the final point to the triumph despite three match points and finally had to decide the tiebreak.

In the shortened game, however, Carlos Alcaraz made up for his earlier hesitation and won 7:5. After two and a half hours of the duel, he was able to celebrate his successful defence. He is a four-time Grand Slam champion, including two-time Wimbledon champion.

Novak Djokovic did not extend his record collection of major titles and in the historical table he did not reach the holder of the largest number of overall victories at the famous London event. He still has seven, Roger Federer one more.

Source: ATP, Eurosport 2