The Paper reporter Chen Jun
20-year-old Alcaraz will start a new era?
In the early hours of July 17, the 2023 Wimbledon men's singles final began, with 36-year-old Djokovic facing 20-year-old Alcaraz, the youngest world number one and a veteran who has played in a record 35 Grand Slam finals.
After five hard fights, Alcaraz won the Wimbledon men's singles title for the first time in his career by defeating defending champion Edjokovic 1-6, 7-6, 6-1, 3-6, 6-4.
Djokovic missed out on his 24th Grand Slam trophy.
Deyo covered his face and cried after the match.
After winning the French Open, Djokovic did not play any grass-court events, but still showed strong dominance at Wimbledon, beating Kachin, Thompson, Wawrika, Hurkacz, Rublev and Sinner all the way to reach the Wimbledon men's singles final for the ninth time.
Ahead of the final, Djokovic is aiming to equalise Federer's record of eight titles and achieve a five-game Wimbledon title in a row – and if he wins his 24th Grand Slam title, he will also equalle the record held by Margaret Court, tied for first man in tennis history.
In the first set, Djokovic broke back-to-back serve to take a 5-0 lead. In the stands, Alcaraz's coach Ferrero was livid and clearly dissatisfied with the performance of his apprentice.
In the second set, Alcaraz regained his form, and after being broken by Djokovic, he immediately broke back, and the two sides went from 2-2 to 6-6. Grabbing the last goal of the seven, Alcaraz scored directly on the serve to win the set in a thrilling way.
In the third set, Alcaraz broke serve as soon as he came up, Djokovic was completely out of form, and soon lost another set 1-6.
In the fourth set, after the two sides drew 2-2 in the game, Djokovic broke serve first and won the set 6-3, chasing the big score to 2-2.
In the tiebreaker, Djokovic almost broke serve but missed the chance. In the third game, Alcaraz broke serve first, and Deyo lost control of his emotions and hit the post next to the net with his racket...
After that, Deyo's mentality was unbalanced, and the Spanish rising star gradually came to the best and won the set 6-4 - in the end, Alcaraz won the Wimbledon men's singles title for the first time in his career with a 3-2 victory over Deyo.
It was Djokovic's first defeat in 10 years at Wimbledon Centre Court, last dating back to Murray in the 2013 final, and Alcaraz became the third Spaniard to win the Wimbledon men's singles title after Santana (1966) and Nadal (2008, 2010).
At Wimbledon this year, Alcaraz, 16 years younger than Deyo, was in a strong form, beating Chardy, Alexander, Mueller, Jary, Berrettini and Roone, and eliminated No. 3 seed Medvedev in straight sets in the semifinals.
But at the end of this difficult final, Alcaraz lay on the ground, hiding his face and crying, as if he couldn't believe what was happening in front of him...
Alcaraz roared in triumph.
The 20-year-old then climbed into the stands to celebrate the hard-won victory with his coach, the former world number one Ferrero.
Despite his disappointment after losing the final, at the post-match ceremony, the 36-year-old Deyo smiled and congratulated Alcaraz: "You played great! Congratulations on what an amazing achievement! I am confident that you will achieve extraordinary achievements in the future, and I would like to congratulate your team and family. ”
The 20-year-old Alcaraz also became the first non-Big Four player to win Wimbledon since 2003 - the Wimbledon men's singles title for the past 20 years was monopolized by Federer, Djokovic, Nadal and Murray.
This also seems to herald a change of an era in the world men's tennis.
Editor of this issue Zou Shan