Spanish and Serbian will reenact the title showdown from last year in a rematch that will captivate the tennis world. Who will emerge as the champion?
Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic have starred in countless dances on the best stages of planet Earth. Some were danced slower and others faster, but the audience always kept their eyes on two prodigies of nature, two competitive beasts who strive to leave their opponent behind and add performances to history.
At Wimbledon 2024, they will face each other again in a legendary men’s final, a rematch of the 2023 title match, which marked Nole’s first defeat at the Cathedral’s Center Court in 10 years and crowned Carlos in what many called a changing of the guard.
However, the changing of the guard had to wait. Djokovic responded in the only way he knows how: by winning. First, taking sweet revenge in another historic final in Cincinnati; then, adding another Grand Slam to his illustrious trophy cabinet in New York. There, he did not cross paths with Carlos… just like he hasn’t throughout 2024, a year marked by inconsistency, lack of hunger, and difficulty in gaining momentum consistently.
Nevertheless, Nole forgets all of that when Wimbledon arrives. It is his garden, where he has lifted the trophy 7 times. Ahead, only Roger Federer’s 8 crowns… a record held last year by the prince of a sport that welcomes him with the smile with which he crafts impossible shots.
Carlos Alcaraz did last year what many thought was unthinkable: defeat the Serbian in a Wimbledon final. He arrived at that match as the challenger, deemed the underdog due to those intangibles he always boasted about (hierarchy, experience, mentality, pressure tennis…) and that tested a lad from El Palmar capable of looking him in the eye and toppling him in a fifth set for the title.
A year later, the tables have turned. Carlos comes as the Roland Garros champion, showcasing the most mature version of his career. Of course, that was not a fluke: in this very Wimbledon, Alcaraz has emerged unscathed from very dangerous situations simply by correctly identifying when he needed to raise his level during the match and, above all, making his opponent play poorly. After dispatching two dangerous rivals like Tommy Paul and Medvedev, his form is slightly better than Djokovic’s, who comes from strength to strength, being very aggressive against Rune and Musetti, but has not yet faced opposition that truly pushed him to the limit.
