If one were to extrapolate any kind of wisdom from the first game of the Wimbledon men’s final—which pitted third-seeded Carlos Alcaraz against second-seeded Novak Djokovic—it would likely be: We are in for one of the greatest—and longest—finals matches in Grand Slam history. That game, which lasted 13 minutes and featured 20 points and seven deuces, seemed a harbinger of epic things to come. (Think about it this way: If the match continued like that—even assuming it was won in three straight sets, say 6-4, 6-4, 6-4—it would have lasted six and a half hours.
) The crowd—which included the Princess of Wales (in only her second public appearance, following June’s Trooping the Colour ceremonies, since disclosing her cancer diagnosis and treatment) and her daughter, Charlotte , in the Royal Box, along with Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Cruise, Paul Mescal, and tennis legends Rod Laver, Andre Agassi, Chris Evert, Stan Smith, and Stefan Edberg—settled in for a classic. Alas! That game was an outlier, not a predictor. Rather than witness a match for the ages, we saw a new kind of dominance emerge, with Alcaraz playing at a level that Djkokovic simply couldn’t match and defending his title in a 6-2, 6-2, 7-6 near-romp.
(There was one significant wobble in an otherwise flawless day from Alcaraz: Having won every point but one in what should have been the last two games of the match, and serving for the title at 40-0, he somehow let Djokovic steal the game, ultimately .
