LONDON — In a brilliant, gutsy performance Sunday in the Wimbledon final, world No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz won his second Grand Slam title in less than a year, defeating seven-time Wimbledon champ Novak Djokovic 1-6, 7-6 (6), 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 and ending the 36-year-old Serbian’s quest for the calendar Grand Slam in 2023.
The match lasted four hours and 42 minutes and was the third-longest final in Wimbledon history.
“It’s a dream come true for me,” Alcaraz said on court after the match. “It’s great to win, but even if I would have lost, I would be really proud of myself, making history in this beautiful tournament, playing a final against a legend of our sport. It’s incredible.”
At 20 years, 72 days old, Alcaraz became the third-youngest men’s winner at Wimbledon in the Open era (since 1968), according to ESPN Stats & Information research.
In El Palmar, Spain, the village where Alcaraz grew up, hundreds of locals gathered at a youth center in the town square to watch their favorite player make history.
“What Carlos accomplished means pride for all the people from El Palmar,” Verónica Sánchez, the town’s mayor, told ESPN. Sánchez organized the watch party after Alcaraz’s semifinal win. “He’s an example for all the young people and is showing our town to the world,” she said.
Playing in only his fourth tournament on grass, Alcaraz has proved to be a quick study on the surface. In two previous appearances at the All England Club, Alcaraz had finished no better than the fourth round. He displayed marked improvement last year, but nothing about his performance signaled he would lift the Gentlemen’s Singles Trophy one year later or have the game — or gumption — to beat one of the all-time great grass-court players on Centre Court.
Before the second set Sunday, Djokovic’s serve had been broken only three times in 103 games this fortnight. Alcaraz did better than that in three sets, storming back from a disastrous opening hour of tennis. Djokovic was clinical in the first set. He dismantled Alcaraz’s forehand and rushed him into errors. Alcaraz won only his final service game that set, but he came…
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