Andrea Petkovic reflects on Alcaraz’s straight-set win against Djokovic in the Wimbledon final.
Andrea Petkovic was left in awe of Carlos Alcaraz’s impressive Wimbledon final performance versus Novak Djokovic as the 2014 French Open semifinalist says she “saw Djokovic in Alcaraz” for the first time.
Since Alcaraz beat Djokovic in last year’s Wimbledon final and he was also coming off his first French Open victory, he was given the edge going into this year’s final at The Championships. But even though Alcaraz was considered the favorite over Djokovic who still wasn’t in his top form after knee surgery, no one really expected to see the 21-year-old completely outplay the seven-time Wimbledon champion and seal a routine 6-2 6-2 7-6 (4) win.
Through the opening two sets, Alcaraz wasn’t giving any space to Djokovic to do anything on the court. Down by two sets and having won a total of four games, Djokovic managed to raise his level and start serving and returning better. But the 21-year-old Spaniard remained unfazed and went on to complete a straight-set win even after the record 24-time Grand Slam champion started to play much better.
And while watching the now four-time Grand Slam champion Alcaraz do that to Djokovic, former world No. 9 Petkovic thought the 21-year-old’s dominant performance against Djokovic was “a scary” sign to the ATP competition.
“It wasn’t a full off-day for Novak but he did have a very slow start. Paired with the best match Carlos played all fortnight it ended up looking like Novak was being overpowered and outplayed. The moment he found his footing in the third set, things got more interesting but it was too late facing a ravishing Carlos Alcaraz. Interestingly, I saw Novak Djokovic in Carlos Alcaraz for the first time and it made me scared for the others,” Petkovic wrote on Substack.
“Carlos found his game. He upped his level, found the depth, the power, the variety and everyone else instantly became fodder. He played his best match against Novak Djokovic in the final.”
Djokovic’s brutally honest take on Alcaraz’s performance
After getting broken twice in each of the first two sets – all while not earning a single break – Djokovic quickly found himself in a pretty difficult position. And after Alcaraz broke Djokovic in the ninth game of the third set to go 5-4 up and then opened a 40/0 lead on his serve, the record 24-time Grand Slam champion appeared to be done.
But then, the Serb stunningly saved three consecutive championship points – managed to force a tie-break – where he didn’t have the strength to complete his comeback as the Spaniard won after realizing his fourth championship point.
After the match, Djokovic didn’t hide how he was feeling about the final, saying that he was “inferior on the court” to Alcaraz.
“The way I felt on the court today against him, I was inferior on the court. He was a better player. That’s it. He played every single shot better than I did. I don’t think I could’ve done much more… he wasn’t allowing me to have free points on my serve,” Djokovic said after the Wimbledon final.
“He played with a lot of variety. I’ve never seen him serve that way. 136. I’ve never seen him serve that fast. He must’ve had a really good serving practice day yesterday. He really outplayed me… he was better than me in every aspect of the game.”
Djokovic’s confession about where he is at compared to Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner
Through the first seven and a half months of the 2024 season, Alcaraz and current world No. 1 Sinner have had the best results and there is no doubt that they have separated themselves from the rest of the competition.
And after losing to Sinner earlier this year in the Australian Open semifinal and now falling short to Alcaraz in the Wimbledon final, Djokovic himself admitted that he was not at their level.
“Being able to reach the final of Wimbledon gives a great confidence boost. But I also feel like in a matchup today against the best player in the world right now for sure, other than Jannik, both of them are the best this year by far… I feel like I’m not at that level,” Djokovic said.
“In order to really have a chance to beat these guys in the Grand Slam latter stages or Olympics, I’m gonna have to play much better than I did today and feel much better than I did today. It’s not something I haven’t experienced before in my life.. in the face of adversity, normally I rise, learn, & get stronger. That’s what I’m going to do.”
Djokovic’s next tournament will be the Paris Olympics, where he could possibly meet Alcaraz or Sinner in the latter stages.
