This story was originally published by Dead Spin
Carlos Alcaraz defeated Novak Djokovic 6-2, 6-2, 7-6 (4) to win his second consecutive Wimbledon singles title on Sunday in London.
The 21-year-old Spaniard, the third seed, was cruising toward victory in the third set, serving up a break at 5-4. But Djokovic, the second seed, saved three championship points, then pulled off his only break of the match, to get back on serve and send the match to a third-set tiebreaker.
The 37-year-old Djokovic, five weeks removed from knee surgery, couldn’t muster his usual precision against the spry and feisty Alcaraz.
“Obviously not the result that I wanted and especially the first couple of sets, the level of tennis wasn’t up to par really from my side,” Djokovic said. “Credit to Carlos for playing some amazing tennis, very complete tennis. He had it all today. I tried to push him for three match points, but it wasn’t meant to be. He was absolutely a deserved winner today.”
Alcaraz converted five of 14 break chances, hit 42 winners to 26 for Djokovic and won 84 percent of his first serves with the Serbian successful just 66 percent of the time in the two-hour, 27-minute match.
Alcaraz defeated Djokovic in five sets last year to win Wimbledon, won the French Open title last month and the U.S. Open in 2022. He joined Roger Federer as the only man in the Open Era to win his first four finals in a Grand Slam and is only the sixth man to win both the French Open and Wimbledon championships in the same year.
–Field Level Media
