This is Carlos Alcaraz's time. His brutal - yet beautiful - battering of Novak Djokovic shows the baton in men's tennis has well and truly been passed, writes RIATH AL-SAMARRAI Alcaraz tore apart 24-time Grand Slam champ Djokovic to win Wimbledon again By Riath Al-samarrai Published: 14:15 EDT, 14 July 2024 | Updated: 14:15 EDT, 14 July 2024 e-mail 1 View comments Five weeks after going under a surgeon’s knife Novak Djokovic had the grave misfortune to encounter a sporting phenomenon with an axe. These wounds will take an awful lot longer to heal.
This was brutal and beautiful, savage and compelling. If there were any doubts around the blurring of eras and the passing of batons in men’s tennis, then they were countered by a sharp reality here on Centre Court: this is the time of Carlos Alcaraz . Last year he and Djokovic treated us to a five-set classic, but Alcaraz’s retention of that glowing, golden trophy was different for the one-sided brilliance with which he dismantled the greatest to ever do it for the loss of just 10 games.
It was the most remarkable way to explode a truism that has stood for the better part of two decades. Because, quite simply, you do not bully Djokovic. You can break his serve, but you never break his spirit.
Unless you are Carlos Alcaraz. He truly dominated the body and mind of a 24-time Grand Slam champion who had walked on court in pursuit of new layers of history and then left in need of a long lie down, having incurred one of the heavies.
