Watch: Offended Novak Djokovic SMASHES racket in Wimbledon last fury
The Serbian initially seemed effectively positioned to proceed his decade-long reign of dominance on Centre Court at SW19, wrapping up a one-sided opening set in simply 34 minutes.
However, an all-time classic final match developed after that, with Alcaraz swiftly firing again to finish Djokovic’s long term of consecutive tiebreak triumphs after which dominating the third set earlier than his opponent took the fourth and Alcaraz edged a nailbiting decider.
It was world No1 Alcaraz’s second Grand Slam singles title after his opening US Open success in 2022 on solely his seventeenth senior match on grass, additional enhancing his fame as the subsequent nice celebrity of males’s tennis.
For Djokovic, he missed out on the possibility to match nice rival Roger Federer’s file of eight Wimbledon males’s singles titles and equal Margaret Court’s all-time mark of 24 Grand Slams total in addition to the possibility to lastly full a calendar Slam sweep, having already received each the French Open and Australian Open up to now this 12 months.
Djokovic’s sense of immense frustration was palpable after he dropped an important break of serve within the deciding fifth set, smashing his racket towards the online publish in entrance of the chair umpire and decreasing it to a twisted mess as he acquired a code violation.
Such a response drew a smattering of boos from the largely pro-Alcaraz crowd on Centre Court, a few of whom had additionally earlier cheered when Djokovic was handed a time violation for taking too lengthy to serve. Djokovic had additionally once more earlier cupped his ear to the gang after profitable the primary set as he revelled in his position as pantomime villain.
Asked about decimating his racket after the match, Djokovic – who nonetheless leads Rafael Nadal by 23 to 22 within the checklist of all-time males’s Grand Slam winners – informed reporters: “There’s not much to talk about that.
“[It] was frustration. I had break points in the second game. Yeah, just a tough, tough couple of points.
“He played amazing to break my serve, which was enough to win the fifth [set].”
Pressed on the incident once more, he replied curtly: “It was a frustration in the moment.
“I answered to your colleague two minutes ago about that. There’s not much to say about that.”