Carlos Alcaraz came to Wimbledon for the first time in 2019, to play the junior tournament, and after a talk between Juan Carlos Ferrero and Roger Federer, the Swiss decided to rally with him.
The photo that came out of that warm-up is framed in the house of the Murcian, who four years later went from being Federer’s partner on the track to his successor on the wall of the tournament champions.
“My dream is to win Wimbledon,” said a twelve-year-old boy from El Palmar at a tournament at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, whose father, Carlos, had put a racket in his hand from a very young age.
Carlos Sr., a professor at an academy in Murcia, had the dream that one of their children will end up playing at the regional or professional level.
He was content to be able to go to the different clubs and enjoy the sport he loved, but rarely would he allow himself to dream that one of his four offspring would one day embrace the golden cup at Wimbledon.
The dream came true this Sunday, with the game clock showing 4 hours and 43 minutes. Time stopped for the Alcaraz, when a backhand from Djokovic went into the net.
His three brothers, his father and mother, his grandfather and the tennis player’s team raised their hands to their heads and hugged each other after the achievement of Carlos, the fifth Spanish champion at the All England Club.
Together with Manolo Santana, Conchita Martínez, Rafael Nadal and Garbiñe Muguruza, as well as Lilí Álvarez and Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, who were one step away from achieving it, Alcaraz joins the Wimbledon members’ club and will be able to visit the club whenever you want and as long as you don’t forget your membership card, as happened to Roger Federer last summer, when he was denied entry to the complex.
The spectacular thing about Alcaraz’s trip lies in its vertiginousness and precocity. Wimbledon was only his fourth tournament on the surface and until a month ago he had never reached a quarterfinal on grass. At Wimbledon 2021, when he was just a promise, they stopped him in the second round, in 2022, They fell in the round of 16 and were beaten by the central defender and by a generation mate like Jannik Sinner.
Would he be able to master the roughest surface for the Spanish tennis player? Would he be able to do it in record time? Both Nadal, Federer and Djokovic needed years and years to win a first title on grass, but he only needed two. He triumphed at Queen’s, surprising everyone, and the question was fueled: “What will happen at Wimbledon?”
“I want to play the final and I want to play it against Djokovic,” said the Murcian at his first press conference at Wimbledon.
It might sound arrogant, but Alcaraz is one of those who doesn’t take a challenge for granted, who doesn’t prefer to play against the 150th in the world and who is aware of the weight of history in this sport. He asked for the best and after six games he met him.
With everyone asking him about the nerves and pressure that killed him in the Roland Garros semifinals, Alcaraz’s fear lasted a set, what it took to realize that he can compete against anyone.
After almost five hours, bordering on the longest final in Wimbledon history, Alcaraz devoured the jackal and embroidered his own history. He went from being the boy who dreams to the boy who is consecrated and traveled from a tennis club in Murcia to the Cathedral of this sport.