Former WTA player Andrea Petkovic shared her thoughts on the 2024 Wimbledon Championships final between Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz, sharing bad news for the rest of the field.
The 2024 Wimbledon Championships turned out to be very exciting in many ways, even though the Gentlemen's Singles final match wasn't very exciting, at least for the duration of the first two sets.
Heading into it, a few players were branded as favorites: Alcaraz, Djokovic, and Jannik Sinner, but outside of those three, there were also players who stepped up and delivered some amazing performances.
Daniil Medvedev's ousting of Jannik Sinner was a tremendous achievement for the Russian, even though he couldn't replicate the same against the 21-year-old Spaniard. Ultimately, after two weeks of competition, Alcaraz and Djokovic found themselves in the final.
It was the same final fans at SW19 saw last year, but the favorite this time around was the Spaniard. Many doubted whether Djokovic would have the necessary fitness to stay in a long battle with the youngster, but it never came to that.
Alcaraz elected to assert his dominance early on, winning the opening set 6-2. He did the same thing in the second set to win it 6-2 as well, and even though Djokovic played his best tennis in the third set, he still was unable to win the set.
It was a resounding three-set win for Alcaraz, and it also sent a very strong message to the rest of the rivals on the ATP Tour. Former player Petkovic, who shared her thoughts on Substack, was very worried for other players.
"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."
After many years of dueling with the Serbian, the rest of the Tour will now have to deal with Alcaraz and his similarly ruthless nature. He arrived in London without any excellent preparation and seemingly diminished confidence after a lackluster showing at the Cinch Championship, where he lost to Jack Draper, but it didn't matter.
The Spaniard slowly gained confidence with every match he played, and when it mattered the most, he played his best match of the tournament. That sequence reminded Petkovic of Djokovic, who has made it a habit to start slow in events but then crush his opponent when it mattered the most, the same way the 24-time major winner did it many times.
"I saw Novak Djokovic in Carlos Alcaraz for the first time and it made me scared for the others. 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."
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