On the day Novak Djokovic was attempting to make unparalleled history – to become the only player, man or woman, to win 25 Grand Slam singles titles, equalling Roger Federer’s record of eight Wimbledon triumphs in the process – he left beleaguered and humbled. In a performance of total control and dominance, Carlos Alcaraz outclassed him 6-2, 6-2, 7-6(4) in Sunday’s final. Winning a mere 10 games, it was the Serb’s second-worst performance in his 37 Major finals, behind only his defeat to Rafael Nadal at the 2020 French Open, when he could muster only seven games.
Playing 40 days on from knee surgery, facing the kind of wear and tear that a 37-year-old body is expected to weather, one could have excused Djokovic if he was downbeat and a shade embarrassed after enduring a Centre Court pummeling like he had never faced before. But the 24-time Major winner quickly put to bed any gloomy outlook on his future, vowing to learn from the defeat and return to his best.
“In the face of adversity, normally I rise and I learn and get stronger,” Djokovic said in his post-match press conference. “That’s what I’m going to do.”
While he did say the knee was a problem in preparation, not much of his immediate assessment suggested anything other than the fact that he was beaten by a better, fitter player – an oddity through his two-decade-long tennis career.
“That (knee injury) probably had an effect, particularly in the opening rounds. But as the tournament progressed, I felt better and better. I reached the final. Some matches, I played some really good tennis. Some matches, I kind of battled my way through. But today, I saw that I was just half a step behind him, in every sense,” he added.
It is an unquestionable fact of Djokovic’s career that he has, time and time again, rebounded from disappointment to become a better player. No other contemporary of his on the tour is able to feed off distress to propel themselves to greater heights like the Serb repeatedly does. Just last year, after losing a knife-edged Wimbledon final to Alcaraz, Djokovic retreated and emerged as the tour-leading giant he was, winning a third Major of the year at the US Open and later another ATP Finals.
Yet, even the expert of turning adversity into steel will not be able to shake off the fact that circumstances this year have changed. Sunday was his first final in eight months, he has gone without a title, or a win against a top-10 player, all year. Both his Grand Slam defeats in that time have come against the rising stars of the next generation (he lost to Jannik Sinner in the Australian Open semifinals). He was outplayed and outthought in both. Credit will be afforded to him for reaching the Wimbledon final with a dodgy knee, but his path to the summit clash at SW19 had not been very challenging.
In the background of all of that, Djokovic will quickly turn his attention to the Paris Olympics. “In order to really have a chance to, I guess, beat these guys (Sinner and Alcaraz) in Grand Slam latter stages or Olympics… I’m going to have to play much better than I did today and feel much better than I did today,” he says.
An Olympic medal is the one achievement missing from his resume of supreme excellence, but given the battering his body has taken in recent times, another quick switch to clay makes Djokovic an outside favourite at best.
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