Carlos Alcaraz admitted he doubted whether he was “ready” to beat Novak Djokovic over the distance in a Grand Slam final.
The 20-year-old won a first Wimbledon title, and became the first player to take down Djokovic on Centre Court in a decade in the process, as he thrilled in a epic encounter on Sunday to seal a 1-6, 7-6, 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 victory.
It ended Djokovic’s bid for a calendar Grand Slam and means the Serbian will have to wait if he is to match Roger Federer’s tally of eight Wimbledon titles. This is the first time since 2017 that he will not leave SW19 as champion, and he also remains one shy of Margaret Court’s all-time record of 24 Grand Slam wins.
The classic on Centre Court came a month after cramp saw Alcaraz’s hopes of beating Djokovic at the French Open fall apart, the Spaniard winning just one game in each of the final two sets in that semi-final clash at Roland Garros.
There was to be no repeat at Wimbledon, as the Spaniard went toe-to-toe with Djokovic over four hours and 43 minutes and proved to himself that he can take on the best on any surface.
“Probably before this match, I thought that I wasn’t ready to beat Djokovic in five sets, an epic match like this,” Alcaraz said.
“After this epic match, let’s say, yeah, I think different about Novak in the way that probably in other tournaments, in other Grand Slams, I will remember this moment.
“I will think that, well, I’m ready to play five sets against him, good rallies, good sets, really long, long match, and stay there physically, mentally, in tennis, in general. Probably it change my mind a little bit after this match.”
Alcaraz went into the grass-court season with plenty of questions to answer, and his campaign on the surface got off to an inauspicious start as he edged past Arthur Rinderknech in his opening match at Queen’s.
That was just his third ever tournament on grass, with Wimbledon his fourth, and yet Alcaraz improved with every match and picked up both titles with a run of 12 straight wins.
It is a second Grand Slam title for the world No1, who will arrive at the US Open later this summer as defending champion, and Alcaraz unsurprisingly ranks this fortnight as his proudest achievement.
“Right now is the happiest moment of my life, that’s for sure,” Alcaraz said.
“Probably in five years [that] will change! Right now, I’m 20, I didn’t live too many situations like this, so I’m going to enjoy this moment.
“Making history that I did today, it’s the happiest moment of my life.”
