He is an astonishingly quick study, young Carlos Alcaraz, and after receiving a set-long tennis lesson from Novak Djokovic on Sunday, Alcaraz proceeded to ace the grass-court exam.
“I thought I’d have trouble with you only on clay and maybe hardcourt,” said Djokovic, a seven-time Wimbledon champion, as he gazed at his 20-year-old successor. “But now it’s a different story.”
Djokovic, 36 years old, and his outrageously gifted cohort of long-running champions have co-written plenty of epic poetry in motion in their two decades of Grand Slam dominance. If Sunday’s final does indeed turn out to be the end of an era, it was appropriately long-form and lyrical, as well.
“One of the all-time great matches I’ve had the pleasure of being able to sit here and watch,” said ESPN’s John McEnroe, who played (and lost) perhaps the greatest tennis match of them all in the 1980 Wimbledon final to Bjorn Borg.