Novak Djokovic seeks 2024 answers for Alcaraz and Sinner after great effort: 4 ATP Wimbledon takeaways 

WIMBLEDON—For the second year in a row, Carlos Alcaraz has beaten Novak Djokovic in the final of Wimbledon. As an intriguing summer continues, here’s more on the journeys of these two greats, as well as two other intriguing ATP Tour takeaways.

1. Carlos Alcaraz is already tearing up the record books

Carlos Alcaraz now joins rare company as only the sixth man in the Open Era to win the arduous Roland Garros-Wimbledon double in the same year. The five others—Rod Laver, Bjorn Borg, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic—were all older than the 21-year-old Alcaraz when they each racked up that result. Each of them also earned at least 11 Grand Slam singles titles. Given that Alcaraz has taken four in the last 22 months, how hard is it to envision him soon enough reaching double digits? “At the end of my career,” said Alcaraz. “I want to sit at the same table as the big guys. That's my main goal. That's my dream right now. It doesn't matter if I already won four Grand Slams at the age of 21. If I'm not keep going, all these tournaments for me, it doesn't matter.”

Last year at Wimbledon, Alcaraz’s five-set win over Djokovic in the finals was a gentle prying of the door when it came to a generational transition. Sunday’s 6-2, 6-2, 7-6 (4) victory kicked it wide open. It began with service break in the opening game and continued with two sets of flawless tennis. During those two sets, Alcaraz utterly smothered Djokovic with power, precision, and tremendous serving—including winning 25 of 29 points when he got his first serve in. “Maybe I was missing something this tournament,” said Djokovic, “but I've never seen him serve that fast.”

Though Alcaraz faltered when serving for the title at 5-4, 40-love, he quickly gathered himself and played an excellent tiebreaker to close out the match. ‘Obviously it was a great match for me,” said Alcaraz. “Obviously Novak didn't play his best the first two sets, a lot of mistakes. I made the most of that.”

For all the results Alcaraz has already generated, what’s most amazing is the breadth of his game. Never in tennis history has there been a player this young with such a wide array of shots and a concurrent ability to repeatedly execute them when it matters most. At the same time, Alcaraz’s humble qualities make him even more endearing. “I don't know what is my limit,” said Alcaraz. “I don't want to think about it. I just want to keep enjoying my moment, just to keep dreaming. So let's see if at the end of my career it's going to be 25, 30, 15, four. I don't know. All I want to say is I want to keep enjoy, and let's see what is the future bring to me.”

2. Novak Djokovic: a great effort—what’s next?

A month ago, surely the route for Djokovic following knee surgery was to recover, skip Wimbledon, and point himself towards the Olympics. But then, in a great surprise, a compromised Djokovic opted to play Wimbledon. “My preparation for Wimbledon wasn't as I would have it normally, usually or commonly to prepare myself,” said Djokovic. “There was hindrance obviously because of the injury. I had to kind of create a hybrid program of training between the rehab, specific exercises for the knee, and the actual pre-Grand Slam fitness training and tennis training.”

Throughout Wimbledon, little on the knee front appeared to trouble Djokovic. Then again, on his way to the final, Djokovic was scarcely challenged. He dropped just two sets and saved considerable energy when ninth-seeded Alex de Minaur withdrew from their quarterfinal match. As Djokovic entered Centre Court to play Alcaraz, it was extremely difficult to get a read on how well he was playing. Soon enough, Alcaraz preempted Djokovic’s hopes for an eighth Wimbledon title. “I don't think I could have done something much more,” said Djokovic. “Try to pump myself up maybe, yes. Get the crowd involved. That's what was happening in the third. That got me going a little bit. Yeah, he wasn't also allowing me to have much of a free points on my serve. He was reading the serve. He was playing with a lot of variety.”

Yet given how negligible Djokovic’s results have been this year, his Wimbledon run was encouraging. It was also, as Djokovic explained, quite revealing. “But I also feel like in a matchup today against best player right now in the world for sure, I mean, other than Jannik, and both of them are the best this year by far, I feel like I'm not at that level,” he said. “In order to really have a chance to I guess beat these guys 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.” This won’t be easy. But as Alcaraz said, “I'm still believing that Novak is Superman because what he has done this tournament with a surgery just before a few weeks before the tournament begun. It is amazing. It is unbelievable.”

3. The candle still burns for the one-handed backhand

As much as the two-handed backhand dominates tennis, Lorenzo Musetti’s run to the Wimbledon semis shows that there’s still a place for the one-hander. But it better be extraordinarily good—both powerful and versatile. Certainly, that’s the case with Musetti’s one-hander. The muscle vehicle is his drive, ignited by an emphatic shoulder and hip turn, fully unleashed either down-the-line (or, as tennis cognoscenti like to say, up-the-line) or whipped crosscourt. When he’s on the run, Musetti might well hit one for the ages. Then there’s his nimble slice. In some instances, it’s a shot that keeps Musetti in rallies. But even that belies its true value. Don’t you dare call it defensive. More accurately, the Musetti slice is a stealth disruptor, a shot that can either extract an outright error or elicit an attackable ball. Players, coaches, and parents, please take note.

4. Strong grass efforts might propel American men at the US Open

Per usual, by early June, American men swiftly kicked the clay out of their shoes, crossed the English Channel, and found much more happiness on the grass. Tommy Paul and Taylor Fritz won pre-Wimbledon titles, a pair of results that nicely set the stage for excellent runs at the All England Club. The two each reached the quarterfinals, an effort highlighted by Fritz rallying from two sets to love down to beat fourth-seeded Alexander Zverev. This the first time two American men had gone that far at the same Wimbledon since 2000 (Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi and Jan-Michael Gambill). Good as those results were, though, Paul and Fritz likely hoped for even more. Paul led Alcaraz by a set and an early break in the second before losing. And Fritz often appeared in control during his five-set loss to Musetti.

Besides those two, Frances Tiafoe played excellent tennis for most of his five-set third round loss to Alcaraz, while Ben Shelton matched his father Bryan’s 1994 feat of advancing to the round of 16. Will the confidence generated by their efforts at Wimbledon aid these men as the year’s final major nears?