For the second time in a row, Carlos Alcaraz has won Wimbledon. And he did so in dominant fashion.
Alcaraz, 21, made fairly quick work of men's singles Grand Slam title record holder Novak Djokovic Sunday to win his fourth Grand Slam championship 6-2, 6-2, 7-6 (4).
Alcaraz flashed his speed and ability to cover wide swaths of the court, seeming to have an answer to each of Djokovic's tactics, especially early in the championship. Djokovic, 37, was seeking his 25th Grand Slam championship, but notably lumbered at times as he continued to wear a brace around his right knee, the one on which he had surgery last month to repair a torn meniscus injury suffered at the French Open.
“Honestly, it is a dream for me to win this trophy,” Alcaraz said during his post-match interview on the court. “I did an interview when I was 11 or 12 years old and I said my dream was to win Wimbledon, so I’m repeating my dream. … For me this is the most beautiful tournament, the most beautiful court and the most beautiful trophy.”
Alcaraz breezed through the first set and then followed that up in the same fashion, breaking serve early in the second set to further seize control. He continued to use his speed and aggressively attacked Djokovic, placing his shots at far ends of the court, making Djokovic run and expend energy. Alcaraz was precise with his forehand throughout the match, while Djokovic struggled at times to place his with accuracy.
Djokvic did show some more fight in the third set, but Alcaraz broke serve on the ninth point of the set to regain control and take a 5-4 lead to serve for the title. Djokovic, however, recorded his first break point of the entire match to stay alive. Djokovic was aided, in part, by an Alcaraz mental error, when he had the chance to smash a match point past Djokovic, only to hit it out of bounds.
The third set would go on to a tiebreak, but Alcaraz methodically controlled play, fending off several Djokovic attempts to win the set. Djokovic had entered Sunday winning 24 of his last 27 tiebreaks in Grand Slams.
Alcaraz completed the victory in two hours and 27 minutes.
“Obviously not the result that I wanted,” Djokovic said during his post-match interview on the court. “Especially in the first couple of sets, my play was not up to par … It wasn’t meant to be. He was an absolutely deserved winner, so a huge congratulations to him.”
The victory marks Alcaraz's second consecutive Grand Slam title, which came a little more than a month ago at the French Open at Roland Garros. In fact, Alcaraz became become the ninth man in the Open era to go back-to-back at the All-England Club and just the sixth to complete the French Open-Wimbledon double.