The Djoker versus the world

These growing feathers plucked from Djoko's wings
Will make him fly an ordinary pitch
Who else would soar above the view of men
And keep us all in servile fearfulness.
(Modified from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar)

Djokovic's younger tennis opponents could be forgiven wanting to chant these lines with relief after Alcaraz comprehensively defeated the Djoker in the Wimbledon 2024 Final.

The Djoker told the world with confidence before the Final that he would win this year's Wimbledon crown.

No matter how promising his younger opponents are, he said, they would just have to wait for putting their hands on the Wimbledon trophy until after he retired.

Well, Djoko's 21 year old finalist opponent, Alcaraz had different ideas.

In front of a stadium audience of fifteen thousand people, he crushed Djokovic in three straight sets in the Wimbledon Final, defending his crown from last year.

He so comprehensively outplayed Djokovic that I would have felt sorry for the Djoker had I not barracked wholeheartedly for an Alcaraz victory.

Whilst last year Alcaraz only won by the skin of his teeth in his first Wimbledon Final against Djokovic in a five-setter, this time he completely outplayed Djokovic.

And he won this time, in less than half the time it took him to defeat Djoko last year.

After Alcaraz won the first two sets with ease, one could still not be sure if Djokovic may not stage a 'Phoenix-rise-from-the ashes' stunt to win the next three sets.

For he did this numerous times before, against less resilient players than Alcaraz.

Indeed, in the third set when Alcaraz could have served the match out at 5:4, he lost his service game and Djokovic was able to push him to a tiebreaker.

But Alcaraz showed his grit in being able to regroup in the tiebreaker and win it.

The significance of the Alcaraz triumph cannot be overestimated.

Kyrgios summed it up well:

'This is the official changing of the guards.'

Alcaraz indeed combines in his all-round-game the best of the three previous dominant players: Federer, Nadal and Djokovic.

The Carlos Alcaraz victory is a huge nail in Djokovic's coffin, if not necessarily the last one.

The Djoker will be anxious to stay in the game longer to break ever more records, in particular to match and exceed Federer's eight-won Wimbledon titles and to win at least one more Grand Slam taking him to 25 singles titles.

This would give him the greatest number of Grand Slam titles in the history of both the men's and women's tennis.

He is not satisfied with already being the holder of the greatest number of records in the history of tennis.

He also wants to make sure that no other tennis player in future could break his numerous records.

But while Federer and Nadal have been treated as lovable Tennis Royalties and the 'young Turk', the Spanish Alcaraz, is increasingly seen as an emerging tennis God, Djokovic keeps being snubbed in the realm of popularity by much of the tennis world, save his Serbian compatriots.

The Djoker is a complex character.

He can be very generous and graceful as he was now in his speech acknowledging that Alcaraz played much better than him and he deserved the Wimbledon crown.

He is the gentlest when he talks about his lovely wife and children.

But sometimes he turns and behaves in a narcissistically boastful and arrogant way.

For example, he threw childish tantrums about the audience's predominant barracking for his opponent, Rune, in the round of 16.

He insisted that they booed him when the audience actually shouted 'Rune.'

He behaved as if he was entitled to audience adulation.

While he craves adoration, he tends to bate audience members who openly express their dislike of him.

So despite his history of record achievements on the tennis court,

it is most unlikely that he will ever win a 'Popularity Grand Slam Contest'.