Carlos Alcaraz‘s 2024 Wimbledon Championships final against Novak Djokovic went quite differently from last year’s, and that was his intention.
The Spaniard didn’t start the 2023 Wimbledon Championships final well, dropping the first set to Djokovic very easily, 1-6, but he still won the match in five sets to lift his first Wimbledon trophy.
He didn’t want to make the same mistake this year, so he really made an emphasis on getting off to a great start. He had dropped quite a few opening sets at this year’s Wimbledon, so to a certain degree, it was surprising when he completely outplayed Djokovic in the opening set, winning it 6-2.
The fact that the Serbian did not play that well certainly helped, and it wasn’t until the third set that the 37-year-old really found any kind of solid level. He pushed the Spaniard in that set but still lost it, so the match ended after three sets.
In a conversation with the Tennis Channel after the final, the newly crowned two-time champion at SW19 confirmed that he wanted to start the match strong after last year’s experience and he was glad that he did it.
“Last year I didn’t start the match pretty well. 6-1 down against Djokovic, playing a poor game. Coming into this year, I thought it was not gonna happen again. I will start the match better. I will try not to think about all the previous matches where I dropped the first set.”
Starting the match strongly proved crucial because it calmed his nerves a little bit and put a lot of pressure on his opponent. According to Nick Kyrgios, Djokovic panicked a bit and quickly found himself down 0-2. From there, Alcaraz was super confident and won the match in three sets.
“I wanted to start the match at my 100 % and really high level of tennis. I did it pretty well. Novak didn’t play his best in the first two sets but I stayed there, I played great tennis the first two sets and it helped me be a bit calmer in the third set.”
