It was a perfect day for Alcaraz: he defeated Djokovic in straight sets, successfully defending his Wimbledon men’s singles title, and completed the double crown of the French Open and Wimbledon in the same season. The match ended hours before the kick-off of the Euro Cup final (which Spain eventually won).
Alcaraz already has four Grand Slam trophies at the age of 22, an achievement none of the Big Three had reached. “Obviously, it’s a great start to my career, but I have to keep moving forward,” said Alcaraz. “At the end of my career, I want to be on par with the Big Three; that’s my main goal and dream right now. It doesn’t matter that I’ve won four Grand Slams at 21.”
“I don’t know where my limits are, and I don’t want to think about it. I just want to continue enjoying the moment and continue dreaming. So let’s see if at the end of my career, it will be 25, 30, 15, or 4 (Grand Slams), I don’t know.”
Regarding his opponent in the final, Djokovic, Alcaraz said, “Novak is like Superman. He had surgery just a few weeks ago, and everything he did in the game was incredible. I beat him today, but for me, Novak is still like Superman.”
Speaking about Sinner’s outstanding performance this year, who is around the same age as himself, Alcaraz believes that new faces winning important tournaments is good for tennis. “I’m happy he’s there, we have a very good rivalry. As young players, we compete for honors, which is good for the sport of tennis and other players.”
Alcaraz is learning from the Big Three how to become the best in history. In the past 12 months, he has learned a lot about how to win on center court: last year’s final was all new to him; this year he knew exactly what he was doing because he’d been through it.
“I no longer feel like a rookie, I’ve been through this situation before. Last year I made many mistakes, but I try not to repeat them, and I’ve done better in that regard. This year, I was calmer before the final than last year, I tried not to think about the match, or just watched some videos, but besides that, I tried not to think about it.”
“I felt I warmed up very well today. An hour before the match, I started to feel nervous, but before that, I was really calm, which helped me a lot going into the match.” Alcaraz said, “I had control of the game well, last year’s final was very different, this year it was much better for me.”
“I think I need to constantly improve everything, my forehand can be better than it is, and it should get better every year. I can still improve continuously to deal with various situations, I can’t stand still after winning this championship, I have to keep growing, keep improving.”