“I just got mature”: Carlos Alcaraz used his full arsenal to beat Novak Djokovic and complete the career Slam

Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic were tied at one-set all, and Alcaraz led 4-2 in the third. The 38-year-old Serb had come out with guns blazing and blown through the first set 6-2. Now, an hour and a half into the final, his 22-year-old opponent had dug his way out of that early hole, and pulled ahead for the first time.

Alcaraz had adjusted his tactics, moving farther back in the court, lofting the ball out of Djokovic’s strike zone, using his slice and drop shot, and turning the match from a sprint into a marathon. With Djokovic serving at 2-4, the two engaged in a rapid-fire cat-and-mouse rally that sent them up and back, and side to side. Djokovic appeared to have an open court for a backhand, but Alcaraz quickly gobbled up the space with his young legs, and finished the rally with a forehand winner of his own. All Djokovic could do was flash Alcaraz a thumbs up as the ball sailed past him.

That thumbs up felt like like more than just a simple congratulations on a point well played. It also felt, to me, like a baton hand-off from one great champion to another, from one generation to the next. The 24-time Slam champ was acknowledging that, between Alcaraz and his own aging body, he had finally met his match.

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“He makes you play your best tennis in order to beat him,” Djokovic said later. “So you know, [that’s] what I’ve done for, like, a set and a half, but then things changed.”

What changed? Alcaraz changed.

In the past, after losing a first set like that, he might have tried to belt the ball even harder and closer to the lines. On a couple of occasions in the past, Djokovic has jumped on him early with a similar barrage, and Alcaraz couldn’t find a way out.

This time, his coach, Samuel López, made a couple of helpful suggestions: Stand farther back on the return, and hit your ground strokes with more height and spin. This helped Alcaraz play the points on his terms, with more time to set up and uncork his heavy topspin. From there, with the court expanded, Alcaraz was free to use his drop shot and his slice, and grind the older man down. As ESPN showed, his clearance over the net went from an average of 23 inches in the first set to 35 after that.

To Alcaraz, though, the biggest confidence boost came when he saw Djokovic miss a couple of shots in a row early in the second set.

“The first game he made few easy mistakes that he hadn’t had in the first set,” Alcaraz said. “So that gave me a lot of calm, or I trust and I believe that the match could change a little bit if I stayed there mentally strong or mentally positive, trying to be solid.”

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Djokovic being Djokovic, he never flew the white flag. Even as his energy flagged and a hip flexor seemed to flare up, he made a heroic fourth set push. He saved six break points in his first service game. He went on the attack again from the ground. He let out a war cry and threw his fist in the air for the first time all night.

By 4-4, Alcaraz was jittery again, and Djokovic reached break point. But in that rally, he decided to take his foot off the gas and try to coax an error from Alcaraz. Instead, he made an error of his own, sending a routine forehand long. Alcaraz grabbed the lifeline, and the last three games. When he won a 24-shot rally at 6-5, Djokovic was finally cooked.

“Kind of regained my energy back and momentum in mid-fourth,” a rueful Djokovic said. “Asked the crowd to get involved. They did.

"Just a bad miss at 4-all and break point, and that forehand, I had a good look at that forehand. My forehand broke down in important moments.”

Afterward, Djokovic didn’t say he was would be back in Australia again. If this was his final trip Down Under, he may not have gone out as a champion, but he went out as a warrior—against his younger opponents and his own aging self. That’s all anyone can ask when you take your turn against father time.

Alcaraz is 16 years younger, but he understood what he was seeing on the other side of the court. Afterward, he said Djokovic was “inspiring to me.” On the line in this match were two big pieces of history: A Djokovic win would have given him an all-time record 25th major title. For Alcaraz, a win would make him the youngest male player to complete a career Grand Slam.

“He makes you play your best tennis in order to beat him, so you know, [that’s] what I’ve done for, like, a set and a half, but then things changed.” Novak Djokovic

Among the men, that’s normally an accomplishment for a later age, one that involves a longer struggle to get across the finish line at one of the majors. But it’s fitting that Alcaraz earned this adult achievement at this tournament.

He did it in his first event without his childhood coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero. In the semifinals against Alexander Zverev, he managed his way through cramps by keeping calm and not letting them overwhelm him. And in the final, he won by changing tactics, using his full range of shots, dialing back his usual go-for-broke style, and making 19 fewer errors than his famously rock-solid opponent. If Alcaraz had a little help from his coaches, that’s just a sign of the times in tennis. He’s still the guy who’s making the decisions, fighting the nerves, taking the swings—and facing down a legend.

“When I was younger, there were a lot of matches that I just didn’t want to fight anymore or just I gave up,” Alcaraz said after surviving Zverev in five-and-a-half hours. “Then I just got mature, and I just hate that feeling after all.”

Like so many great athletes, he also used his doubters as fuel. With the world speculating about his future without Ferrero, he and his team shut everything out and went to work.

“A lot of people were talking about everything and having doubts about my level in this tournament,” he said. “So coming this year, hungry for more, ambitious for getting the trophy, and being strong mentally enough, not hearing anything or any words from the people.”

“And then just playing good tennis in this tournament means a lot, means the world to me, and it’s a dream come true for me.”