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Ever since Roger Federer retired and Rafael Nadal started fading away, tennis fans have had their eyes set on the future. On Sunday, at the Centre Court in Wimbledon, came the clearest evidence that there was a fresh dynasty taking shape with a new king in place. Carlos Alcaraz’s straight sets demolition of Novak Djokovic will likely be the watershed that heralded the change. Djokovic, a 24-time Major winner, may have entered the tournament just weeks after a knee surgery and without a final appearance since the ATP Finals last November. But the 37-year-old was a seven-time Wimbledon champion who had lost just nine completed matches at SW19 since his debut in 2005, and no two to the same opponent. That Alcaraz, 21, managed to beat the legendary Serb twice in a row might be his greatest achievement. If the 2023 triumph established the Spaniard as a serious contender, the latest victory is sure to upend the hierarchy. For the first time since Federer won his first in 2003 on these hallowed lawns, three consecutive Majors have gone by without a winner from the Big Three. Alcaraz, with four Grand Slam titles in a short span of two years, has already zoomed past Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka, who toiled long and hard for three Slams each.
It is not that Alcaraz is the only prodigiously talented player to emerge in recent years. Jannik Sinner, the reigning World No.1 and the 2024 Australian Open champion, has shown sufficient mettle to prove that he will be the generational rival to Alcaraz. On his day, Daniil Medvedev, especially on hard courts, can be an equal. But no player has looked as complete as Alcaraz, who has all the shots in the book and a mental make-up to match. Of his 15 titles, eight have come on clay, four on hard and three on grass. And he has won his debut finals at both Roland-Garros and Wimbledon, a feat even Federer, Nadal and Djokovic have not managed. Among women, it was the turn of Barbora Krejcikova to master the sport’s natural surfaces as she added the grass-court Major to the French Open singles trophy that she won in 2021. The Czech may have been the seventh first-time winner at the All England Club in as many editions, but her success is more a sign of the depth in the ladies’ game than of perpetual flux. And Wimbledon is where this is likely to be most pronounced until the women’s Tour’s leading players, Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka, crack the code on the lush green lawns.
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Back to the future: The Hindu Editorial on Wimbledon 2024 and tennis
