FIRST BLOOD to Spain on this Sporting Super Sunday – let’s hope it’s the only time they will be celebrating today.
Carlos Alcaraz, the young Spanish tennis matador, emphatically retained his Wimbledon singles Championship with a straight-sets victory over an out-of-sorts Novak Djokovic.
A 6-2 6-2 7-6 demolition job in a rather underwhelming final sees the Iberian add a fourth Slam to his CV from 14 appearances and become the NINTH man in the Open Era to defend the competition.
The Princess of Wales, making a long-awaited return to public duty following her announcement she was undergoing cancer treatment, handed out the trophies on Centre Court in her role as AELTC patron.
But whisper it quietly, Her Royal Highness would have probably been pleased it was all done quicker than expected.
This did not turn into a five-set epic and VIPs such as Tom Cruise, Mo Salah, Jack Grealish and Emma Raducanu could start making early plans to watch the Euros final given that it was all over in less than two-and-a-half hours.
Djokovic, 39 days after knee surgery, struggled with his net play and lost for the second year in a row in the final – his dreams of winning Slam No25 will now move to New York.
When England won the World Cup in 1966 there was a Labour government and a Spanish male winner of Wimbledon, so maybe this was a good omen for later.
The first game of the contest, which saw Alcaraz unlock the Djokovic serve on his FIFTH break point, lasted 13 MINUTES.
Those hoping for an early cut to get down the pub to watch the football would have feared the worst at this point but their concerns were soon allayed.
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Alcaraz struggled badly with nerves during the start of the 2023 final – he was battered 6-1 in a one-sided first set by his East European rival – but he was on fire this time.
His huge serve of 136mph in game two was his fastest of the tournament and his booming forehands down the line were catching Djokovic off guard.
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Perhaps the weight of history was getting to the Serbian veteran because a rare double fault in game five handed a double break to his opponent, who is 16 years the junior.
Nothing was going Djokovic’s way and even when he had a break-point chance, Alcaraz saved his skin with a magnificent 130mph delivery.
With Alcaraz going 1-0 up on the scoreboard, it meant Djokovic dropped the opening set of a Grand Slam final for the first time since the 2022 showpiece occasion with Nick Kyrgios.
At the start of the second set, the No2 seed repeated his trick with a break of the Djokovic serve.
Djokovic, considered by many to be the Greatest Of All time in the men’s ranks, was operating nowhere consistently near the extraordinary levels that we have seen him reach on this court.
His serving and returning stats, for someone of his talent, were woeful, he was off the pace and seemingly unwilling to trade blows with Alcaraz from the baseline because he kept coming to the net.
Maybe Father Time had finally caught up with him because he was not sliding into the forehands like he usually does.
To compete toe-to-toe with Alcaraz in a match of this magnitude, he had to be at full throttle but he was making far too many mistakes.
When he gifted Alcaraz the 5-2 lead in set two with another double fault, you realised this was not going to match last year’s five-set thriller for entertainment or drama.
There was a glimmer of hope of a recovery for Djokovic in game six of the third set on the Alcaraz serve but he was unable to capitalise.
Alcaraz, 21, squandered three match points on his serve in game 10 at 40-love but on one of them, he appeared to miss his volley when a ridiculous woman in the crowd screamed out as he was striking the ball.
It did not turn out to be a pivotal moment because in the third-set tie-break, Alcaraz kept his composure to secure his 14th successive victory at Wimbledon.
Djokovic, 37, only won 10 games, which represented his second-worst defeat in 37 Slam final appearances.
The seven-time champion had been aiming to become the oldest man for 94 years to win the Wimbledon singles crown.
But that will have to wait until 2025 – for now, Wimbledon is not a country for old men.
PRIZE MONEY for the 2024 Wimbledon Championships is a new record – and puts the grass-court Slam at the top of the tree.
The All England Club will dish out £50million across all the events – an increase of £5.3m and 11.9 per cent on last year, where singles champions Carlos Alcaraz and Marketa Vondrousova picked up £2.35m each.
However, the king and queen of grass this July will collect an extra £350,000 – taking the winner’s earnings to £2.7m.
Here is the breakdown for the 2024 Wimbledon singles prize money:
