By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Friday July 12, 2024
Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz will meet in the Wimbledon final for the second consecutive year.
Photo Source: Rob Newall / Camera Sport
Novak Djokovic is giving new meaning to the Paris-Wimbledon double. Sure, many male players have won titles at Roland-Garros and Wimbledon in the same season.
Nine in fact, in the Open Era alone, including Djokovic: but how many have won Wimbledon just over a month after undergoing knee surgery in Paris?
After Friday’s 6-4, 7-6(2), 6-4 victory over Lorenzo Musetti on Centre Court, the 24-time major champion is one step from achieving that rare – some might say inconceivable – feat on Sunday.
Djokovic, who reached his record 37th Grand Slam final in his 75th major appearance, will bid to tie Roger Federer on the all-time men’s singles titles list at Wimbledon with eight.
He will face defending champion Carlos Alcaraz, the man who rallied from a two sets to one deficit against him in last year’s final at SW19, as he bids to stand alone on the all-time singles Grand Slam title list with 25.
“He already beat me last year in the Wimbledon final, in a thrilling five-setter,” Djokovic said. “I don’t expect anything less than that honestly, a huge battle on the court. He’s as complete a player as they come – it’s going to take the best of my abilities on the court to beat him on Sunday.”
If Djokovic succeeds, so soon after surgery, he will have done it against all the odds, just the way he likes it.
“I was a seven year old boy in Serbia, watching the bombs fly over my head,” Djokovic told the crowd after his win. “And dreaming of one day being in the most important court in the world, which is here, Centre Court at Wimbledon.”
He may have had no doubts as a young aspirant living in war-torn Serbia, but Djokovic admitted that there were doubts after surgery, all the way up to the moment he decided to take part in the tournament.
“I didn’t know whether I was going to be part of the tournament or not until the day of the draw,” he said. “I said before the tournament if I felt like I didn’t have a chance to go deep in the tournament I probably wouldn’t be playing – that kind of mentality is ever present.”
Wearing the same grey compression sleeve on his surgically repaired right knee that he has sported all fortnight, the 37-year-old put in one of his most complete performances of the tournament against 25th-seeded Musetti. Pushed from start to finish by the probing game of the blossoming 22-year-old, Djokovic hit all the high notes, won the lion’s share of big points and ended up pulling away for his (yes, another record ) 375th career win at the majors.
The Serbian has now won 23 of his last 25 Grand Slam semifinals since the start of 2015, as he reaches his tenth Wimbledon final and improves to 97-11 lifetime at the Championships.
Mindboggling doesn't do it justice. The Grand Slam king has now reached ten finals at three different majors, while no other player has reached ten at more than one.
Finally, a final!
In a six-month stretch that has been characterized more for disappointment than success – by Djokovic’s own lofty standards – the Belgrade native reached his first final of 2024. After winning three of four major titles in 2023, he has been kept off the board by the sports’ rising tandem of Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner thus far in 2024. Sinner dominated Djokovic in the Australian Open semifinals, ending Djokovic’s bid for an 11th title down under, while Alcaraz triumphed in Paris, winning the title just six days after Djokovic had pulled out of his quarterfinal and subsequently underwent the aforementioned knee surgery.
In a bizarre turn of events, that surgery, and the fire that he showed in his last match prior to surgery, when he rallied from two sets to one down to defeat Francisco Cerundolo in the fourth round at Roland-Garros, seem to have fueled Djokovic’s fire like nothing else could.
After announcing that he had undergone surgery many believed that the Serbian would skip Wimbledon this year. We should have known better – the man loves a monumental challenge, and he’s been on a vision quest ever since.
"One of the Greatest 21 Year Olds We've Seen"
Djokovic has won three of five lifetime battles against Alcaraz, including the last two, but Alcaraz’s victory in last year’s Wimbledon final changed the way we perceive Alcaraz’s potential on the grass. The 21-year-old has returned to the scene of that triumph with a sense of purpose in 2024, stretching his Wimbledon win streak to 13 with an emphatic victory over World No.5 Daniil Medvedev in Friday’s first semifinal.
He now owns a 17-2 lifetime record at Wimbledon, and will bid to become the third player in Open Era history to win four major titles before turning 2022 on Sunday, along with Bjorn Borg, Boris Becker and Mats Wilander.
“He’s deservedly one of the greatest 21 year olds we’ve ever seen in this sport,” Djokovic said of Alcaraz. “We’re going to see a lot of him for sure in the future. He’s going to win many more Grand Slams but maybe, hopefully, not this one.”
Sunday’s clash will be a chance for Djokovic to take the power back from his young rival – and it could be his last chance. At 37, he’s still blessed with restorative superpowers, but who knows what 2025 will bring?
Father Time remains undefeated at Wimbledon – ask Roger Federer and Serena Williams – but for the time being, Djokovic is defying the odds. He played very much like a player at the peak of his powers on Friday, handling everything the talented Italian threw at him and responding to the peaks and valleys of a tense battle with pitch-perfect match management skills. Any time he needed to raise his level, he did so.
He was down 0-30 while serving at 5-5 in the second set, as the Italian made a push to level the match. Djokovic’s response? An unreturnable serve followed by three consecutive aces. Moments later he had taken the tiebreak to put Musetti in a two sets to love hole.
Musetti produced brilliant shotmaking at times in the pair’s seventh encounter, and had Djokovic on a string at others with his backhand slice, drop shots and variety, but Djokovic warmed to the challenge, defended the court like a man half his age, and used his world-class serve and pinpoint accuracy to perpetually pepper Musetti until he reached the breaking point.
It came without fail, in every set, and Djokovic steadily marched to the victory in two hours and 55 minutes to book his spot in the final.
He’ll be asked more difficult questions on Sunday, as Alcaraz possesses all the guile of Musetti in addition to better serving, returning, court coverage and big stage experience.
“Last year it was a really difficult match,” Alcaraz said on Friday. “He put me in trouble, I'm going to say. But I know how it's going to feel playing against Djokovic. I've played a few times in Grand Slams, finals of Masters 1000s, multiple times.
“I know what I have to do. I'm sure he knows what he has to do to beat me. It's going to be a really interesting one … for sure. But I'm ready to take that challenge and I'm ready to do it well.”