Carlos Alcaraz was a phantom for the first 45 minutes of his maiden Australian Open final. While the Spaniard was painfully tentative on one of the most significant occasions of his career, he was suffocated by the eternal brilliance of Novak Djokovic, who burst into this historic match playing some of his best tennis in recent years.
A younger version of Alcaraz may have compounded his slow start by overhitting, as was the case during parts of their fateful Olympic battle in Paris 18 months ago, but here he calmly worked his way into the match and then took control. In the process, he pulled off one of the great sporting achievements in recent years, recovering from a set down to defeat Djokovic 2-6, 6-2, 6-3, 7-5 and triumph at the Australian Open for the first time in his career.
