Serving for his first Wimbledon title at 5-4 in the 5th set, on the first point, Carlos Alcaraz attempted a backhand drop shot. It didn’t go well, right into the net. So, what did he do on the next point? Almost the same thing, but this time with a forehand drop shot from behind his baseline!
Was he expecting a different result? Or was he about to choke away the biggest game of his life to the man who has won more major grand slam singles titles than any other? To a man who was going for his 24th major title? Novak covered the shot well and directed a slice backhand down the line deep into the corner, only to see a perfectly placed topspin lob just out of reach that landed safely inside the baseline.
What’s next? Seeing Novak slip after his forehand return of serve, Carlos comes into the net behind a well-placed forehand from just inside his baseline. Even though Novak slipped, he recovered quickly enough to set up a crosscourt backhand to either force an error from Carlos, who though rushing to the net was still not yet to the service line, or make an outright winning passing shot, only to see Carlos come up with another genius shot by diving to make a backhand volley just over the net and well beyond his opponent’s reach!
Now up 30-15, Carlos could have easily been down 15-30 or perhaps 0-40. As it was, Novak leveled at 30-all with a good return which put him in a strong court position to knock off a winning forehand behind Alcaraz. Carlos needed two more points to end things.
And how did Djokovic even end up in this position after taking the first set decisively and arriving at a set point in the second set tie-breaker? At 5-4 up in the breaker, Carlos made almost the identical play as he did three sets later, by trying to attack from deep in his court, albeit coming in behind a backhand. And this time, Djokovic was able to force him into an error. Carlos tried something similar on the next point; Novak passed him to arrive at a set point. And what happened? The greatest lock-down tiebreak player in recent history hit two successive neutral backhands early in the point, into the net! Down set point now Novak attempted a rare, against Alcaraz, serve and volley.
Set to Carlos as he responded with a backhand return off a well-placed serve to the corner. Was it lucky? Was it genius? And why did Djokovic choose to do that? Did he choke? Did he blink? Had Novak taken the second set, had he ever lost in a major event from two sets to love up? Forty-nine times he has won. Once he lost, in 2010. So, 49-1.
Back to the fifth set. It was never love forty, and it was never 15-40. But it was 30-all and Carlos forced an error with a solid serve to the tee. A solid body serve helped Carlos to set up an explosive forehand from inside the baseline force the final error from Novak. Now if only Federer had done the same in 2019!