Novak Djokovic was looking to equal Bjorn Borg and Roger Federer’s record of winning five Wimbledon singles titles in a row at this year’s title match. Djokovic had eased past Carlos Alcaraz in the opening set 6-1, and it seemed a forgone conclusion that he would win his seventh title to match Federer’s record.
However, the Spaniard had come with his own agenda. He kept Djokovic on tender hooks for the remainder of the match and eventually beat him in a thrilling five set encounter to take the trophy home. It was the Spaniard’s second Grand Slam trophy after he won the US Open as a teenager last year.
How Roger Federer’s thoughts inspired Carlos Alcaraz to create history?
Carlos Alcaraz was the underdog going into the finals of the Wimbledon 2023. Novak Djokovic had shown his class more often than not in the big finals of the Grand Slams. He had played his archrivals and the other two members of the Big 3 club, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, 14 times in Major finals and had come 9 times on top.
He had won three Wimbledon finals against Roger Federer, the greatest player on grass. In his post-match interview, Djokovic had said, “I have to be grateful because I won a lot of tight matches in the past years, maybe I should have lost a couple of finals I won, so maybe this is even steven.” He was referring to the 2019 finals he had won by the skin of his teeth against Roger Federer, being match points down.
Alcaraz remembers Roger Federer while playing against Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon
In 2019 Wimbledon final, Roger Federer had two match-points against Djokovic while serving for the match at 40-15 but couldn’t close out the match and had eventually lost. Alcaraz too had flashback of that famous Federer’s loss to Djokovic, at the most pivotal moment when he was about to serve out for victory against Djokovic in the deciding fifth set.
At the change over just before the final game of the epic battle, Alcaraz thought about that Federer moment and said, “For someone like Federer to lose that final…I think that’s so tough. I told myself: Please don’t let that happen to you. Do whatever it takes,” (via Yahoo).
Roger has been one of my idols and a source of inspiration! 🥲 Thank you for everything you have done for our sport! ❤️ I still want to play with you! 🥹 Wish you all the luck in the world for what comes next! 💪🏻 @rogerfederer pic.twitter.com/k4xjyN3AAB
— Carlos Alcaraz (@carlosalcaraz) September 15, 2022
It was then that the young Spaniard played a strong service game to win the title, hitting six first serves in succession to take the advantage away from Djokovic and win the coveted title. For Carlos Alcaraz, having a childhood idol like Federer was inspiring enough to win his first Wimbledon trophy.