Here, safely protected by the roof on Court 1, was the latest in a long line of days when Carlos Alcaraz embodied the changing of the guard in men’s tennis.
6ft is no height really for a tennis player, and 20 is certainly no age at all. But it helps when you can strike a tennis ball as powerfully as he can.
In this win over Jeremy Chardy, there was a moment or two when the coin landed Alcaraz’s way up. At 4-4 in the third set, his crosscourt forehead tickled the net and fell on Chardy’s side of the net.
Yet this was a match in which Alcaraz could have experienced the worst luck in the world and still earned a safe passage through to round two of Wimbledon. With all other courts bar Centre rained off in the meantime, Alcaraz became prime viewing.
Chardy, the greying 36-year-old Frenchman, made the somewhat comical error ahead of this match of admitting this was to be the final match of his career. But what if you win though, Jeremy? He hadn’t even pondered that eventuality, such is Alcaraz’s pedigree right now.
The crowd on Court 1 rooted for Chardy throughout the affair, but so too did they gasp and marvel at Alcaraz’s monstrous power and laser accuracy whenever he smacked a fierce forehand Chardy’s way.
The world No1 only reached the fourth round last year, but helped by seven double faults by Chardy in the first set alone, he strutted into the third with a seemingly unassailable 6-0, 6-2 lead.
Chardy huffed and puffed and drew on his experience of 18 years as a Grand Slam player, pushing the Spaniard much closer in the third set. But at 5-5 he was broken by the impatient Alcaraz.
A few aces later and Alcaraz was through to round two, where he faces another Frenchman, but just doesn’t know who yet. “Year after year, I love the game even more”, Chardy said this week. But his body perhaps loves it less so now. He bids farewell to SW19 and indeed to tennis.
Novak Djokovic lurks on the bottom half of the draw, but it is hard to see how Alcaraz does not blitz the rest of the top half from here. Forget his potential, what a player he already is.
