Novak Djokovic notably lost his cool during a truly epic men’s Wimbledon final showdown with Carlos Alcaraz on Sunday.
The Serbian initially looked well placed to continue his decade-long reign of dominance on Centre Court at SW19, wrapping up a one-sided opening set in just 34 minutes.
However, an all-time classic final match developed after that, with Alcaraz swiftly firing back to end Djokovic’s long run of consecutive tiebreak triumphs and then dominating the third set before 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 only his 17th senior match on grass, further enhancing his reputation as the next great superstar of men’s tennis.
For Djokovic, he missed out on the chance to match great rival Roger Federer’s record of eight Wimbledon men’s singles titles and equal Margaret Court’s all-time mark of 24 Grand Slams overall as well as the chance to finally complete a calendar Slam sweep, having already won both the French Open and Australian Open so far this year.
Djokovic’s sense of immense frustration was palpable after he dropped a crucial break of serve in the deciding fifth set, smashing his racket against the net post in front of the chair umpire and reducing it to a twisted mess as he received a code violation.
Such a reaction drew a smattering of boos from the largely pro-Alcaraz crowd on Centre Court, some of whom had also earlier cheered when Djokovic was handed a time violation for taking too long to serve. Djokovic had also again earlier cupped his ear to the crowd after winning the first set as he revelled in his role as pantomime villain.
Asked about decimating his racket after the match, Djokovic - who still leads Rafael Nadal by 23 to 22 in the list of all-time men’s Grand Slam winners - told 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 again, 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.”
