Carlos Alcaraz, 20, of Spain, who has been touted as the next big thing after becoming the youngest player in history to reach the world No. 1 ranking, defeated veteran Novak Djokovic, 36, of Serbia, to win his first Wimbledon men’s singles title.
Alcaraz defeated Djokovic 3-2 (1-6 7-6<8-6> 6-1 3-6 6-4) in four hours and 42 minutes to lift the trophy in the final of the tournament at the All England Club in London, England, on Saturday (Sept. 16). The prize money is 2.35 million pounds ($3.91 million).
Alcaraz, who avenged a 1-3 loss in the French Open quarterfinals in May, took a 2-1 lead in the head-to-head with Djokovic. Alcaraz, who won his first major title at last year’s US Open, increased his tally to two.
His victory ends a nearly two-decade-long reign of the men’s tennis “Big Three. Djokovic remains the reigning champion with a career-high 23 majors. He was part of the Big Three with Rafael Nadal (Spain) and Roger Federer (retired-Switzerland). Add to that Andy Murray (GBR), a two-time Wimbledon champion, and you have two decades of Wimbledon dominance since Lleyton Hewitt (retired-Australia) in 2002.
After taking the first set with ease, Djokovic threw his arms out in frustration as the tide of the second and third sets slowly turned in Alcaraz’s favor, and later left the court on several occasions in a state of exhaustion. Two years after becoming the youngest player to win a Masters 1000 Series event, the youngest to be ranked No. 1 at the end of the year and the youngest to be ranked No. 1 in the world, Alcaraz finally erased the last vestiges of the Big Three with the win 메이저사이트.
With powerful strokes from the baseline, net play that leaves opponents reeling, and athleticism that spans the entire court, Alcaraz has been described by the tennis world as having “the best of Djokovic, Federer, and Nadal. After identifying a psychological flaw as the reason for his French Open quarterfinal loss, he worked with a psychologist ahead of Wimbledon to overhaul his mental game, and proved that the flaw was sealed when he came back from a first-set deficit to win the match.
“Honestly, I won for me, not for the new generation of tennis,” Alcaraz said. To beat Djokovic and win Wimbledon is something I’ve been dreaming about since I started playing tennis,” he said. “He has this incredible fighting spirit, like the Spanish bull that we’ve seen with Nadal for so many years,” Djokovic said, “and he’s a very complete player with things that I consider to be my strengths, like defense and adaptability.”