Carlos Alcaraz was in the form of his life, destroying Novak Djokovic during the Wimbledon 2024 final. The Spaniard was way more energetic and seemed determined to defend his title. Having played against Alcaraz 5 times before Sunday, the Serb thought he knew what to expect. But after the loss, the former World No.1 revealed an important part of Alcaraz’s game which took him by surprise
It was Alcaraz’s improved serve which proved to be the biggest difference. Even as Djokovic is considered to be one of the greatest returners the sport has ever seen, even he had no answers to the youngster’s relentlessness.
Djokovic shed light on this exact point that played a huge role in making him feel “inferior on the court”.
“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.
“He played with a lot of variety. I’ve never seen him serve that way. 136 (miles per hour). 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 was quoted as saying in the post-match press conference.
Interestingly, Alcaraz doesn’t heavily rely on his first serve to be a major threat to his opponents. However, during the final against the 7-time Wimbledon winner, Alcaraz devised a game plan to use his serve as a weapon. Taking the bold decision of increasing his first serve speed worked in his favor.
While he did record his highest single match double faults count (6) in the tournament, Alcaraz’s averaged first-serve speed of 196 km/h enabled him to baffle Djokovic. The World No.3 was able to record an 84% win percentage on 1st serve – his highest throughout the tournament and a massive jump from his YTD average (72%), as per ATP Tour.
It also showed how much Alcaraz relies on inputs not just from his coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero but also from data analytics. While it has worked on grass, it would be interesting to see if the 4-time Grand Slam champion’s tactics work next time against Djokovic on another surface.
