The Serbian Novak Djokovic, the tennis player with the most Grand Slam titles, arrives at Wimbledon -which begins on Monday- determined to continue breaking records, but the Spanish Carlos Alcaraz, number one in the world, will be a rival of great height after his recent triumph at Queen’s, on grass.
At 36, Djokovic has 23 individual Grand Slam trophies, surpassing his eternal rival, Rafael Nadal, after winning Roland Garros in June, where the Spaniard did not participate due to an injury that will keep him out for the rest of the season.
The Serb is determined to continue making history on London grass, also seeking to equal the record of eight titles held by Swiss Roger Federer, who retired in September at the age of 41.
Djokovic, who is also the tennis player with the longest accumulated time as number one, also aspires to win all four Grand Slam tournaments in the same year, after having been crowned at the Australian Open and on French soil.
No man has done it since Rod Laver in 1969. Germany’s Steffi Graf did it in 1988, also adding an Olympic gold medal in Seoul.
WITH DJOKOVIC “YOU’RE DEAD”
“I’m going to try to win Wimbledon again. I’ve won the last four Wimbledons, I feel good on the grass,” said Djokovic, current world number two, after beating Norwegian Casper Ruud in the final in Paris.
Before, in the semifinals, Djokovic beat Alcaraz, who at the age of 20 suffered cramps due to the “tension” and “nerves” of playing against the implacable Serbian.
Djokovic “leaves you without legs, then he leaves you without a soul, then he digs your grave and your funeral arrives and you’re dead,” said Croatian tennis player Goran Ivanisevic about the mentality of the Serb, whom he has been training since 2019.
Alcaraz fell on a surface that he dominates, the dirt, but only two weeks later he achieved the feat of winning at Queen’s, the third grass competition of his young career, where he had gone to “learn” on grass.
This allowed him to recover the number one that Djokovic had taken from him in Paris and land in London stomping.
“It helps a lot to arrive at Wimbledon as number one in the ATP rankings,” he said. But he also acknowledged that Djokovic, whom he could only meet in the final, “is the main favourite.”
RYBAKINA’S DIFFICULTIES
In the women’s draw, the number one, Iga Swiatek, will seek to add the great title on grass to her last US Open and her three Roland Garros ((2020, 2022 and 2023).
But the 22-year-old Pole has never excelled on grass and although she qualified for the semifinals on this surface for the first time on Thursday, at the German tournament in Bad Homburg, she ended up retiring after spending “a restless night with fever and perhaps poisoning food”.
Also the current Wimbledon champion and number 3, the Kazakh Elena Rybakina, 24, starred in a series of recent withdrawals, first at Roland Garros and then at the English tournament in Eastbourne due to a “viral disease”.
A week earlier he fell in the second round in Berlin, showing problems with the serve, despite being one of his strong points.
As of this edition, Wimbledon, which requires players to wear an all-white wardrobe, will make an exception and authorize tennis players to wear dark shorts to alleviate the anxiety of having to play if they are menstruating.
This year the Russian and Belarusian players are also back on their grass. After their controversial exclusion in 2022 due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, they will have to sign a declaration of neutrality and have no state funding.
Alcaraz, who fell in the second round in 2021 and was eliminated in the round of 16 in 2022, will have to overcome great obstacles before a potential final with Djokovic: the German Alexander Zverev, the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas or the Russian Daniil Medvedev can cut him off.
The Serbian, who in ten years has not lost a match on center court at the All England Club, could face Australian Nick Kyrgios in the quarterfinals, whom he beat last year in the final, but who arrives in poor form.
