The new king of Centre Court
Carlos Alcaraz Garfia is the new king of Centre Court. The 20-year-old was crowned the 2023 Wimbledon champion on Sunday when he defeated the four-time defending champion Novak Djokovic 1-6 7-6(8) 6-1 3-6 6-4 in a 4-hour 42-minute thriller.
The first set was a breeze for the defending champion, which he won 6-1. Many though the rest of the match would be too.
But Carlos Alcaraz had other plans. He won the second set 7-6. It included a marathon 26-minute thriller of a game which he won. From 5-6 down, Djokovic managed to make it 6-6, but then lost the tie-breaker.
The strain of losing that stupendous game and the set showed when he lost the third set 1-6, the same score he had won the first set by.
But the champion that he is, he made his way back into the match by winning the next set 6-3 and making it two sets all.
The final set too saw tough competition. But once Alcaraz broke his opponent early on, it was always disadvantage Djokovic. Carlos Alcaraz won his maiden title on the only grass court Grand Slam when Djokovic netted a forehand return.
With this defeat, Roger Federer and Bjorn Borg remain the only two men to win the grass Major five times in a row.
Carlos Alcaraz stopped Novak Djokovic from winning an all-time record-equalling 24th Grand Slam, but it looks like he still has some time, at least to equal that record.
Records set by Carlos Alcaraz
- Third Spanish man to win the Wimbledon
- Third-youngest men’s champion at Wimbledon
- Fourth Spanish player to win multiple Grand Slam titles
- Fifth man in the Open Era to win multiple Grand Slam titles prior to turning 21
