This was a very even match with the Joker leading 23 to 22 in games, but he lost the tie breaker in the second set, which ultimately proved to be fatal. It wasn’t the blow out that Traz vs Medvedev was, but in the end Alcaraz deserved the win.

What separated the players? Ultimately Alcaraz was willing to be aggressive even if that was measured in drop shots or willingness to come to the net. Many times the Joker hit penetrating shots but never followed to the net. Alcaraz probably has the best drop shot we have ever seen  and today it was a big factor, by contrast most of the Joker’s drop shot attempts failed.

But the real turning point was the tie breaker which has been a bank for Novak. He played a nervous, tentative tie breaker which gave Alcaraz the belief to carry him through to the win. Novak had shown his vulnerability.

Going forward Alcaraz’s completeness as a player, which  Novak alluded to, is also his challenge. What can he improve? There will be other talents coming for him….bigger, faster, younger players…..can he find the skills to keep them at bay. 

As for Novak he was hardly outplayed, this was more like his loss to Medvedev where nerves derailed his Grand Slam bid. With his team and typical Serbian toughness I expect he will be back, but it will be harder now that Alcaraz has tasted victory. 

Hopefully he gets a better shake. There is a huge outcry about him taking too much time….but nothing was said about the number of times he successfully challenged incorrect line calls. It has to be disconcerting to feel the officials are calling for your opponent, which they were today. And the crowd was rabidly pro Alcaraz. Every game Novak plays is in front of an away crowd.

Congrats again to Alcaraz…hopefully Rune and Sinner can up their games to join the party.

It was a vey competitive match and I think 1 or 2 more unforced errors by Djokovic than Alcaraz ended up the latter winning the tournament.

I  was  not entirely happy with part of Djokovic delaying and slowing the games down.   He got three warnings for timewasting and then argued with the umpire about the issue.   It may have been the result after being behind 2 sets to 1 that he got more difficult for Djokovic and puts him under pressure.

I think that the crucial game in the 5th set was the 1st one  where Alcaraz broke the service of Djokovic   that decided the outcome of the match.  

When I said about 15 months ago that Alcaraz is the player for the  you disagreed with me and as from the 2022 American Open  tournament Alcaraz played in 3 Majors and won in  2 of them.     So  have you changed your mind on   him as a player?   

I put a small bet on Alcaraz beating Djokovic and made a profit of R127,50.   I then took a look at the race card for today and found a horse I liked a lot and put R120 on the Horse.  It won and may return was R720.

Thanks A lcaraz you ae a real star.   

What a great final it turned out to be.

A excellent yound player turning the tables on one of the greats in tennis history.

Must admit though that some of the calls by the officials leave a lot of question unanswered about the quality of the officials.

Djokovic stood tall in defeat and showed his quality as a sportsman by acknowledging the younger opponents tennis potential.

A most enjoyable and exciting final served up by two great tennis players.

Well Mike since Djokovic was allowed to play again after the Oz debacle in 2022 he won 3 of 5 Majors…..that after you told us he was washed up. Were you wrong?

Mozart

The question is about Alcaraz.   The problem is that he was denigrated by you from the word go.

The problem is that Djokovic is the last and youngest of the BIG 3 that ruled tennis for years.  Federer has officially retired and we also know that Nadal will next year play in a few tournaments,   

Although Djokovic - being more athletic than the other two - still survives as  a top player in world tennis - he is not the player he used to be anymore    In the previous years he would not struggle to win matches like he did in Wimbledon this year.   There is a reason for that - he picks and chooses in which tournaments he would playing and at times is not really match-fit or seemingly so.

Despite all the hype I forecasted that he would lose against Alcaraz because I was not convinced  that he could win the tournament.     He won against Rublev - but in the end Rublev did not compete anymore - I will give you one example - in the third set Rublev had in one game had 11 break points he failed to convert.   If he won that game the match would have gone to 5 sets and be up in the air.   Alcaraz is a cooler player than Rublev - who tend to self-destruct 

Anyway it would be interesting to see whether Djokovic will go to the USA and Canada this year - not that he has been successful  playing on US hard courts.   The last time he played in the US open he lost against Medvedev - in the Cincinnati Open  he was kicked out of the tournament because he threw a racket and it hit a linesman.   I cannot remember when last he won a tournament in the USA.   If he does not go to the USA he could potentially remain as the second ranked player in the world.

Mozart

The question is about Alcaraz.   The problem is that he was denigrated by you from the word go.

The problem is that Djokovic is the last and youngest of the BIF 3 that ruled tennis for years.  Federer has officially retired and we also know that Nadal will next year play in a few tournaments,   

Although Djokovic - being more athletic than the other two - stills survived as  a top player in world tennis - he is not the player he used to be anymore    In the previous years he would not struggle to win matches like eh did in Wimbledon this year.   There is a reason for that - he picks and chooses in which tournaments he would playing and at times is not really match-fit.or seemingly so.

Despite all the hype I forecasted that he would lose against Alcaraz because I was nt entirely concerned that he could win the tournament.     He won against Rublev - but in the end Rublev did not compete anymore - I will give you one example - in the third set Rublev had in one game had 11 break points he failed to convert.   If he won that game the match would have gone to 5 sets and be up in the air.   Alcaraz is a cooler player than Rublev - who tend to self-destruct 

Anyway it would be interesting to see whether Djokovic will go to the USA and Canada this year - not that he has been successful  playing on US hard courts.   The last time he played in the US open he lost against Medvedev - in the Cincinnati Open  he was kicked out of the tournament because he threw a racket and it hit a linesman.   I cannot remember when last he won a tournament in the USA.   If he does not go to the USA he could potentially remain as the second ranked player in the world.

And where were the Russians you were so sure were going to take over Wimbledon. Why not give us a discussion of their performance?

If Djokovic is not the player he was and still won 2 of 3 majors, that says he is playing  pretty weak opposition.  But of course that reduces the value of Alcaraz’s wins as well. Clearly that’s not true, the Wimbledon final was very high quality.

Alcaraz is clearly the most competitive of the younger players at this stage. The nature of things is eventually the old lions are driven out, as injuries and age pile up.  That will eventually happen to the Joker.

The succeeding players aren’t going to be judged on that, they are going to be judged on how they deal with the emerging challengers. The fact that Alcaraz won at a young age may not matter….so did Thiem.

There is a long, long road before he can be mentioned in the same breath as the big three and while he is young, I can’t see what gets technically better in his game. From here on every player will be scheming to take him down..  hell  maybe your hero Medvedev will even take a set off him.

I was never sure of h e Russians taking over Wimbledon - that was a total distortion as to what I wrote.   You lie in that regard as well.   I said he fact that the Wimbledon ban of Russian players was BS and that reduced the tournament to a Exhibition tournament - that was my only statement on which you went bananas.

I agree with you about Djokovic ban in the Aussie Open - but he gave the Aussie Government the finger-up and his actions were contrary to what happened - but still he was not allowed to play - which was wrong.

Unlike you I look at the real performance of players - not at hype.  The story you write about Alcaraz is BS as per normal.   Yes - he has at least 12 years to get to where the BIG 3 got to in the end.   None of the  BIG 3 had the number one ranking in World tennis at the age of 19.    They were much older than that when they reached that ranking.

I have some news for you and that is that Djokovic is likely to go to the USA  this year.  In 2022  Djokovic preferred not to go to the USA - there was nothing stopping him from going to the USA last year.   He has not been very successful playing on the US Hard courts.    As far as I can remember he has not won the US Open since 2017.    When he did play in Cincinati in 2021 he got so frustrated that he was banned  because he through a racket and it skidded off the court and hit a linesman.   He lost the subsequent US Open against Medvedev.   Would he be more successful this year - nobody knows - but taking about wat happened in the US hard court series since 2018 the odds that he would be more successful this year seems to be wishful thinking.

Unlike you I am objective in respect of spots participants - the fact is I do not invent BS to use to attack players you dislike, neither do I  suffer from age addiction you are guilty of.

So you say:

‘ In 2022  Djokovic preferred not to go to the USA - there was nothing stopping him from going to the USA last year.’

But here’s the truth Djokovic was going to be banned from coming to the US

‘Stacy Allaster, the tournament director of the US Open, said in a statement: “Novak is a great champion and it is very unfortunate that he will be unable to compete at the 2022 US Open, as he is unable to enter the country due to the federal government’s vaccination policy for non-US citizens.’

You call yourself objective. How can you be objective if you can’t even bother to verify the most basic facts. The truth is you have been a bullshitter your whole life and got away with it. Unfortunately for you on this Board your dishonesty  has been exposed.

Well Mozart the said ban by the USA is still applicable at present and was never withdrawn by the Biden crazy administration.    So why is he going to the USA this year with the same restrictions still applicable?

Anyway -  Djokovic has indicated that for the rest of 2023 he will concentrate on playing in the Cincinati Open, the US Open and the Davis Cup series - so there is zero chance of him getting the no 1 ranking back by the end of the year.   

What I  cannot understand is your attack on other players and your complete support and silence on issues he differed from your own constant campaigns on site.   Djokovic refuses to accept any vaccination for Covid - yet you are attacking other people who advocate anti-vaccination views.     Djokovic is closely linked to the Serbian Orthodox Church - the present head of which is a Russian.    Yet you support the Zelenskyy Government who banned the Ukraine Orthodox Church with the same links to the Russian Orthodox Church - not a word of criticism  as to the views of Djokovic on that issue.    Djokovic was strongly opposed to the ban imposed by the Uk on Russian players and publicly said so as he is a close friend of some Russian players - you apparently supported the ban.   Djokovic is openly involving himself on the Kosovo issue and is not a fan of NATO who bombed Belgrade to impose on them the end to get Kosovo independent and recently in the French Open left controversial message that Kosovo is in his view part of Serbia.    

So lets get back to tennis - Djokovic in a recent interview after Wimbledon said that Alcaraz is the most complete player he ever played against in his career - you said all along he is not anything like that and keep on finding negatives about the player.   He said Alcaraz is the future of men tennis and he supports him all out.   So who must we believe - Djokovic or you on that issue?

By the way since 2017 Djokovic has not being good in USA hard course tournaments - the 2021 Cincinati and US Opens was a typical examples of his performances in the USA.    Aside from the Cincinati Open - there are still 3 ATP 1000 titles to be played this year - ie the Canadian, Shangai and Paris Open and a host of ATP 500 tournaments which Djokovic said nothing about his schedule for the End of Year Championship - the tournament regarded by all professional tennis players they strive and worked hard to play in all year long.

Incidentally in 2022 Alcaraz was the world no 1 player and won the trophy  Djokovic won for a number of years in succession.     At the start of 2022 Alcaraz was the number 32 player in the World - at the end of it he was the number 1 Player in the World  and that at 18 old at the beginning of 2022.   He was prevented from playing in both the End of Year Championship and the Ausie Open that cost Alcaraz the number 1 ranking - you saw it as an opportunity to start your normal stories about Alcaraz being  injury-prone.   

I am not saying Alcaraz is faultless and  will not fail in some future tournaments -  I am just listening to what players like Djokovic said about him and believe them and not your BS.            

You can never just admit you were dead wrong. Once again we get the shuffle, the change of topic and then the attack. It’s so predictable.

I did change the topic - I point out the BS you always spout on site about sportsmen - inclusive of Alcaraz and that was really all that I referred  to,     You could not take the truth of what I wrote and that led to your last response - keep on squirming, it really is funny.         

Just admit you were wrong for once.

What was I wrong about idiot-speaker?     

Classical….now you start with the insults. So there we have the cycle….you start with a statement you don’t bother to check, when you are told you are wrong, you deny it. Then proof is provided and you shuffle, change the topic and then attack. When you are asked to admit you were wrong….you then pretend it never happened.

You are a joke Saaiman.