Carlos Alcaraz successfully defended his Wimbledon title today, just five weeks after winning Roland-Garros and barely two months after turning 21. Last year’s victory over Novak Djokovic was an almost five-hour endurance test; today’s 6-2, 6-2, 7–6 (4) affair was a drubbing until Alcaraz anxiously squandered triple championship points at 5-4, giving Djokovic the chance to hold on for dear life and eventually force a tiebreak.
As a Federer purist, Alcaraz could surely appreciate the stress his own supporters felt watching those three points slip away — even on our deathbeds, we’ll be haunted by Djoker’s Houdini-like escapes in the 2011 US Open semifinal and the 2019 Wimbledon final. But this result never seemed in doubt, which made the tension almost mordantly funny: Djokovic, now approximately 94 years old (or perhaps 37) and weeks removed from arthroscopic knee surgery, looked gassed and outclassed from the start, while the exuberant young Spaniard barely seemed to break a sweat.
“I was inferior on the court, that’s it,” the seven-time Wimbledon champion opined, and after thanking his team for 20 years of support he vowed to keep going. It answered the question raised by his runner-up speech (he spoke at such length you would’ve assumed he was the victor, pausing to offer career advice to his son in the stands): was the GOAT hinting at a not-so-distant farewell?* Maybe at Flushing Meadows, a venue that brings out his inner ham, he’ll treat us all to a rousing rendition of “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going.”
It was a great two weeks in London, with a magnificent run from Alcaraz and a few thrilling breakthroughs on the women’s side. Jasmine Paolini, the recent French Open finalist, had a spectacular showing on grass before losing to Barbora Krejčíková in yesterday’s final. I wanted the Czech to win this one for her late (lesbian) coach, Jana Novotná, but I’ll be pulling for Paolini in her next Slam final — as long as Świątek isn’t on the other side of the net.
Now that tennis is out of the way for the next couple weeks, I’ll try to focus more on either reviews or completing the lighthouse, a process I’m slowly documenting for the hobby site. I decided not to launch it until I have an adequate number of posts in the tank, just to take a bit of pressure off myself while my attention is pulled in too many directions, but again, I’ll link to it once it’s live. “Angels in Chains” diorama updates are also coming once there’s decent spray-painting weather.
* Federer is my favorite, yes. But Djokovic is, for now, the GOAT. Had he and Federer been the same age, I think Federer would’ve easily owned the head-to-head. Alas, whatever their other talents, neither could time-travel.