For 14 minutes on Sunday morning, the Wimbledon final was ready to settle into a classic. The duel between Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic, their first of 2024, produced titanic rallies and stinging winners and a stalemate that extended through seven deuces and five break points and it was impossible to look away.
Then the first game ended and the rest of the match started.
And the rest of Alcaraz’s 6-2, 6-2, 7-6 (4) victory did not even come close to living up to the start, as he romped to a fourth major championship.
Because not many people pay attention to all the tennis that goes on between majors — and there is an entire hard court season yet to play out — it’s easy to view Wimbledon as a harbinger for the U.S. Open, which Djokovic won a year ago after Alcaraz was knocked off in the semis by Daniil Medvedev.
