Alcaraz Rolls Past Djokovic To Repeat As Wimbledon Champion

On Sunday, Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic met in a rematch of last year’s Wimbledon Championship.

While it was a repeat of the 2023 final, this one played out much differently.

A year after outlasting Djokovic in a thrilling five-set affair, Alcaraz repeated as champion, this time beating the nine-time champion 6-2, 6-2, 7-6(4) to claim his second Wimbledon title, and his fourth major overall.

“It is a dream for me, winning this trophy,” said Alcaraz. “In an interview when I was 11 or 12 years old, I said my dream was to win Wimbledon, so I am replaying my dream. I want to keep going but it is a great feeling to play in this beautiful court and to lift this amazing trophy. This is the most beautiful tournament, most beautiful court and most beautiful trophy.”

Alcaraz made his presence felt immediately, breaking Djokovic in the opening game of the match after a 14-minute game. His athleticism and shot-making ability was on display throughout the opening two sets, as Djokovic was unable to make any headway.

In the third set, Djokovic’s serve improved and it became the most competitive set of the afternoon. Despite that, Alcaraz led by a break and was serving for the championship at 5-4, 40-0. A double-fault on his first championship point opened the door, and before he knew it, he gave the break back to Djokovic.

“It was difficult for me. I tried to stay calm, I tried to stay positive at that situation, going into the tie-break, and I tried to play my best tennis,” he said. “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.”

However, in the tiebreaker, Alcaraz proved to be too much. On his first championship point in the breaker and fourth overall, the Spaniard closed it out.

“I’m really happy with the work that I’m doing with my team. I’m really proud about myself, all the things that I’m doing great. I’m really proud about my people around my team,” said Alcaraz. “Everything we have done already has been unbelievable, an amazing journey so far. As I said, I really want to keep going, to keep improving, to keep growing up, to try to keep winning. That’s all that matters for me right now. I don’t know what my limit is. I don’t want to think about it. I just want to keep enjoying the moment, just to keep dreaming. So let’s see if at the end of my career, it’s going to be 25, 30, 15, four. I don’t know.”

For Djokovic, a run to the finals was a remarkable achievement for someone who had a knee operation just a few weeks ago. During the trophy ceremony, he heaped praise upon his opponent.

“Obviously it is not the result that I wanted and especially in the first couple of sets, the level of tennis wasn’t up to par, really, from my side,” said Djokovic. “But credit to Carlos for playing some complete tennis. From the back of the court, on serve, he had it all today. I tried to push him and saved the three match points, extended the match a little bit, but it wasn’t meant to be really. He was an absolutely deserved winner today, so congratulations to him for amazing tennis.”