Stan Wawrinka voiced it out loud what numerous different gamers discuss quietly. Asked if he felt he may beat Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon forward in their third-round conflict, the Swiss, a three-time Grand Slam champion who has despatched the Serb packing from the 3 different Slams, stated, “I don’t really stand a chance”.
In the ultimate 5 years and 34 suits that Djokovic has performed on the All England Club, no person truly has. Now a 20-year-old Spanish greenhorn on grass comes alongside believing, and no longer shying clear of saying it to the arena, that he can defeat a 36-year-old seven-time Wimbledon champion going for his 5th directly identify within the ultimate on sunday.
“It’s going to be really, really difficult. But, you know, I will fight. That’s me,” Carlos Alcaraz said after blowing away Daniil Medvedev in the semi-final. “I will believe in myself. I will believe that I can beat him here.
That’s a start. Even though the end result might yet go the other way.
Record beckons
It would take a brave man to bet against Djokovic tying Roger Federer’s record of eight Wimbledon titles. To bet against Djokovic stretching his lead in the all-time Slam list to 24 and his hold on the majors this year. To bet against Djokovic, who has not been touched on Center Court since 2013, to be trumped in 2023.
But Alcaraz is a brave player. With an audacious game to boot. One that handed his breakthrough Slam crown on the hard courts of New York at 19 last year and a rich spread of 41 wins sprinkled with just four defeats across hard and clay courts this year. A heady mixture of power and touch was yet to blend on the green, however, as he exited from the second and fourth rounds of his previous Wimbledon appearances.
Not for nothing, though, is Alcaraz bookmarked for greatness and compared to a fellow special Spaniard. Grass his least preferred surface too; Rafael Nadal took three cracks to make his first Wimbledon final in 2006. Alcaraz did not need more, showcasing his adaptability and versatility skills on the surface with quick movement of the feet and rich variety of the game. Alcaraz’s rise has been rapid. He is an equally fast learner.
“I don’t think many people expected him to play so well (on grass), because his game is basically built and constructed and developed for clay mostly or slower hard courts,” Djokovic said. “But he’s been incredibly successful in adapting to the surfaces and demands and challenges of opponents on a given day.”
Come Sunday, Alcaraz must summon all the ones characteristics towards an opponent he reckons has “no weak spot”. The Spaniard will have to let his serve do a lot of the talking and his famous forehand a lot of the firing. Over and above that , find a way to get past the Djokovic serve. The 36-year-old has lost only three service games in his six matches so far, saving all but three of the 19 break points. Even if someone were to find an opening on the Serb’s first strike, it would take something special to crack it.
The mind game
Yet more than tactics and game, it is Alcaraz’s mind that would do well to free up. Easier said than done, as his cramp-hit four-set French Open semi-final defeat to Djokovic after leveling things up in the second set showed. That meeting, arriving after a long wait of over a year since their first encounter, was built up as the battle of the season. The 20-year-old sure felt it, admitting later the cramp was more due to a nervous mind than a hampered body.
It has taken a little over a month for them to cross paths again. Alcaraz promises to “do one thing other” in London, with the help of his psychologist, to turn up at Center Court with a calmer mind.
“I’ll attempt to pull out the entire nerves, attempt to experience that second,” he said. “It’s going to be other for me… I feel I’ll be higher on Sunday.”
Better than the most productive at Wimbledon since 2018? We’ll see.