Alcaraz beat king Djokovic
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Carlos Alcaraz
The ‘Championships’ of the All-England Lawn Tennis Club is the Wimbledon title. The final of men’s 2023 was between Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic. Alcaraz winning the title bought the curtain down and signalled end of an era to the old brigade. The dominance of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Djokovic lasted well over a decade erasing Pete Sampras, Ivan Lendl’s performances from our memory. This year final was a close encounter with many jump-out of the seat moments.
Alcaraz of Spain
On record Alcaraz is the youngest to become the world No.1 at the age of 16. Having been in tennis for six decades, I never seen this all-in-one player at 16, now 20 with a decade of good tennis ahead of him. To explain, he has stroke making ability of Federer. That is saying a lot. Brute power of Nadal, moves well or better than Djokovic to cover court. Djokovic is never an easy player to beat. Alcaraz was able to do it. A phenomenal all court performance.
Marketa Vondrousova
Wimbledon final of 2023
The first set went to Djokovic. However, there was change when Djokovic leading 5-1. Up to that point, Alcaraz was not striking the ball well. He had too many miss hits. Then Alcaraz changed and stood one metre behind the base line. This did something to Djokovic. By then, for Alcaraz, it was too late to salvage the first set.
In the next two sets, Alcaraz and Djokovic played some of their best tennis. It was also the best centre court saw this year. It had an electrifying effect on the grand stand. Alcaraz won the second and third sets and Djokovic won the fourth. By then they have played for over four hours. Djokovic became marginally erotic and short of ammunition, energy and frustration set in. Him smashing the racquet, which cost him 6000 plus Sterling Pounds was an indicator of his hopeless situation. Later, he said he never thought Alcaraz would be so good on grass.
Djokovic is 36 years, viewing for his 24th Grand Slam title. He confessed at the prize giving that this loss hurt him the most. True to the character, he used everything to get the crowd against Alcaraz during the match. More from the New-Gen players will do what Alcaraz did in the near future. Sinner is knocking at the door.
In the men’s draw, the dark horse of the event was Christopher Eubanks. He reached quarter-final in his maiden effort. Improved his ATP ranking by 12 positions. We are bound to hear about him in the near future. He lost a five-set match.
Ladies Singles
The last unseeded player to win the Wimbledon title was USA’s Billie Jean King, present President of the WTA. That was in 1963. This happened again this year when Vondrousova of Czech Republic won the Ladies title. Her opponent in the final Jabeur of Tunisia threw in all she had to reach the finals. This is her second appearance in Wimbledon final. Her ability to half volley ruffled all her opponents and had a profound effect on grass.
Vondrousova’s final three opponents were from the Top 10 of WTA raking. When she beat Rybakina of Kazakhstan in the semi-final, it was an indicator that one time French Open finalist was a favourite for the title and it happened.
Ons Jabeur said the same as Djokovich at the prize giving. Her loss to Vondrousova in the final is a bitter one in her carrier and will be hard to forget. The simplicity of Vondrousova’s game along with her ability to play at net gave her the edge to win.
Sivitolina of Ukraine coming back to competition started as a qualifier and reached the semi-finals. Her ranking went up by 49 positions to 27. Vondrousova went up by 32 to be in the Top 10.
Brit wins junior title
A British player, Henry Searle, won Under-18 title after 62 years. Stanley Mathews in 1962 won the Junior Wimbledon beating Alex Metreveli of Russia. The men’s final of 2023 between Alcaraz and Djokovich will go down in history. A cliffhanger with both players throwing what they had at each other. Rarely Wimbledon finals reaches this intensity and importance to tennis. Coming out of health scares and so many other developments, this year’s Wimbledon was refreshing breath of fresh life.
–George Paldano, European and Asian competition player; Coach German Tennis Federation; National coach Brunei and Sri Lanka; Davis Cup, Federation Cup coach, coached ATP, WTA and ITF ranked players in Europe and Asia; WhatsApp +94775448880–