Wimbledon: Carlos Alcaraz, the new king in town | Tennis News – Times of India

LONDON: Carlos Alcaraz — tennis’ boy wonder – is the new king of Wimbledon. The 20-year-old, nerves in deep freeze, wooed Centre Court with his staggering range for four-hours and 42-minutes, and then collapsed onto the grass. Perhaps in prayer.
Alcaraz scored a memorable 1-6, 7-6 (6), 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 win over the seven-time champion Novak Djokovic to clinch his second Grand Slam title.
“It’s a dream come true for me, it was great to win,” Alcaraz said, “but even if I lost today, I was proud of myself, making history in this sport, playing a final against a legend of our sport. This is amazing for a boy of 20 to reach these situations.”

The Spaniard’s second major, besides disrupting Djokovic’s epoch defining charge as also snapping some marathon streaks by the Serbian, saw the 20-year-old equal the Open Era record for the fewest attempts before winning a second major men’s singles title.
It was only his second Grand Slam appearance since winning his first.
The 36-year-old Djokovic was off to a sharp start, taking a 4-0 lead some 24 minutes into the match. The popular Spaniard, who appeared to have a problem with his shorts, the fit perhaps, tugging at it after every point, early in the match, settled into his game and gear as the match progressed.

After 48 minutes, Alcaraz, on his second break-point opportunity, in the second game of the second set, broke for the first time in the match when a Djokovic forehand landed wide.
That excitement was short-lived as the 23-time major winner broke in the next game.
There was a lot of talk that the final, played in windy conditions, under blue skies, would help the talented Spaniard against Djokovic, whose mental game takes on a whole different dimension when pitted against opposition without the natural elements in play.

If you versus me hasd been Djokovic’s song, so has been his ability to adjust.
When Djokovic outplayed Alcaraz to hold serve and level scores at 5-5 in the second set, the Serb turned to the crowd, he commanded the cheers and Centre Court was on its foot, and chants of ‘Nole, Nole’ followed.
It was Alcaraz, though, who closed out the second set, 8-6 in the tie-break, ending a streak of 15 tiebreaks the Serb has claimed at Grand Slams, to level set scores, the Spaniard wound up the crowd.

If the Royals – the Prince and Princess of Wales and their two older children George and Charlotte – had eyeballs on them, down the other end of this mighty Church Road facility, a couple of rows from the press box, was Hollywood heartthrob Brad Pitt.
While the British royalty applauded politely, Pitt was on his feet, palms thudding. The fans took the cue, like it was a line in his movies, shouts of ‘Nole, Nole’ were drowned in the sound waves of ‘Carlos, Carlos’.

It was a match, a clash of more than the two men in the middle. The third set saw some fluctuations in form that like the wind appeared to come and go as the 20-year-old broke in the first game and then took a 3-1 lead.
But it was the 26-minute fifth game –13 deuces, eight game points for the server – with Alcaraz converting on his seventh opportunity and letting out a scream that echoed across this leafy suburb – that gave the top-seed a 4-1 lead that virtually pronounced the set as done.

Alcaraz’s grunt is a study in phonetics, it varies with weight of shot, sometimes it drags and other times it deepens. Then it soars like a bird in full flight. Then there were games where the grunts clashed, or was it just guts?