Last year, it was a five-set epic. This year, it was a straight-sets triumph. Carlos Alcaraz defeated Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon final for the second straight year on Sunday,6-2, 6-2, 7-6(4), rolling to his second major title of 2024 and fourth of his career.
Alcaraz, also a winner at Roland Garros in June, is just the second man to ever win his first four Grand Slam finals (he's now 4-0) after Roger Federer won his first seven. He also joins Rod Laver, Bjorn Borg, Rafael Nadal, Federer and Djokovic as players to win Roland Garros and Wimbledon in the same year in the Open Era.
"It is a dream for me, winning this trophy," Alcaraz said in the trophy ceremony. "In an interview when I was 11 or 12 years old I said my dream was to win Wimbledon, so I am [repeating] my dream. ... This is the most beautiful tournament, most beautiful court and most beautiful trophy."
Alcaraz was comprehensive over 2 hours and 12 minutes against Djokovic, who had defied the odds in even reaching the final. A month ago, the Serb underwent arthroscopic surgery on his right knee for a torn meniscus, an injury that ended his Roland Garros campaign prematurely with a withdrawal before his quarterfinal against Casper Ruud.
"I really think he just was better than me in every aspect of the game: in movement, in the way he was just striking the ball beautifully, serving great, everything," Djokovic said post-match. "I did all I can to prepare myself for this match and this tournament in general. If someone told me I would play Wimbledon finals three, four weeks ago, I would take it for sure."
Djokovic had lost just two sets in the tournament, one in each of his second and third-round matches, and benefitted from a quarterfinal walkover himself when Alex de Minaur was forced out with a hip injury. In between, he rolled to straight sets wins over Holger Rune and Lorenzo Musetti; the former has beaten him twice in five prior matches, and he and the latter played a 4-hour, 29-minute epic in Paris that ended at 1:45 a.m. in the latest finish in Roland Garros history.
But Alcaraz represented a step up, and it was evident. A 14-minute first game looked as though it would set the tone for the match, and it did—just not in the way most might've expected. It was eventually the first of five games in which Alcaraz broke Djokovic, and he did not lose serve over the first two sets. He faced one break point in that time, already ahead 4-1 in the opener, and swatted that away.
But there was one twist in an otherwise straightforward tale, late in the third set, as Alcaraz looked to finish off a perfect serving day with a flourish when he held three championship points at 5-4, 40-0. On one of those, a fan called out as the Spaniard played a swinging volley. He hit the ball wide of the sideline, and went on to lose serve for the first time in the match.
“It was 40-0 but I was seeing [the trophy] so far away," Alcaraz said. "Djokovic is an unbelievable fighter and I knew he was going to have his chances again, so I had to stay there. I tried to win the point with the serve, but I couldn’t.
“It was difficult for me. I tried to stay calm, I tried to stay positive at that situation, going into the tiebreak, and I tried to play my best tennis. That’s all I was thinking about. I’m really glad that at the end I could find the solution and I’m happy to be in this situation.”
Alcaraz ended the match with 42 winners to Djokovic's 26, and responded to any attempt Djokovic match to mix up patterns of play. The seven-time Wimbledon champion came to net 53 times, but only won 27 of those points, and also only won 66% of points on his first serve. Alcaraz and Djokovic have now split six career meetings.
"You can always analyze the match, of course, after and say, I could have done this or that," Djokovic said. "Just overall the way I felt on the court today against him, I was inferior on the court. That's it. He was a better player. He played every single shot better than I did.
"I don't think I could have done something much more. Try to pump myself up maybe, yes. Get the crowd involved. That's what was happening in the third. That got me going a little bit."
"Of course, I do feel disappointed. It's a bitter taste to lose the finals the way I did today," he added. "If has to be a success in the end of the day with me and my team playing Wimbledon finals and losing to the best player of the tournament without a doubt. That's all I can say."
