Wimbledon 2023

Yesterday truly was a gladiatorial final and a good day for mens tennis. Whilst the outcome could have gone either way, what was notable was you could see that Alcaraz believed he could defeat Djokovic, that he was there for the taking. And Djokovic knew it too, that's why he was losing his cool & messing about. Carlos still had to deliver but he had the core belief. That psychological barrier is what has held many back against Novak, Nadal, Federer and Williams in the past. They might have had the skills but were overcome by the dominant personality on the other side of the court in big games.

Djokovic is desperate to be liked though. It clearly bothers him that the crowd are against him practically all of the time and he was never loved liked Federer or Nadal were.

The crowd generally supports the underdog.

The last few years have gotten very repetitive. All the matches he plays up to the final are box ticking exercises. So the crowd gets behind the opponent to try to give them a nudge.

Then when he does long toilet breaks when he's losing (did you see Billy Jean king's face during that) but never when he's winning, goodwill starts to fade.

I personally have no problem with Djokovic, personality wise I think he's colder than others but I think that's a product of his environment. I do prefer Federer and Nadal even with or maybe because of all his twitching.

Yes but was that not also because after the first set, that Alcaraz did not buckle - he gave as good as he got. He could see that his hero had feet of clay and could be broken. Which got into Djokovic's head and which led to errors. Novak has been the alpha male for many years in situations like that against younger players - yesterday he was taken down.

Nole played as good as he could aged 36. He’s not at his prime. That is clear. It’s just that him not being at his prime has not been needed against the best of this era. I backed Carlos to win in 4 based off what I had seen from both.

Carlos showed me more speed and dynamism on court; exactly what you’d expect from a 20 year old top class tennis player.

Nole looked sluggish and laboured in some of his earlier matches.

Yes the rubbish that Mats Wilander and Tim Henman were coming out with after the French Open was utter hyperbole.

Djokovic is better than ever, hitting the ball harder than ever and moving better than ever they claimed.

This defies all the laws of biology, no man hits harder than ever or moves better at the age of 36.

Wilander seems to be an absolute imbecile.

He did an awful lot of badgering of players throughout the week- more so I thought than usual- ie they’re all queuing up to beat me, well I’m ready for them” sort of thing.

I wonder if this mind games sort of carry on was him trying to knowingly compensate for an obvious decease in overall performance? It’s a sure sign someone is worried about something when they go on like that sort of near “trash talk” - it’s not really tennis is it? 😀

And….Djokovic had many many unforced errors - I think he’s been treading water now for some time, maybe believing his own hype I dunno - he was certainly caught off guard yesterday but I don’t think at 36, he’s capable of adapting his game yet again - he’ll never beat Alcaraz at Wimbledon

Not the biggest of tennis fans but was Djokovic not regarded as somewhat of a ‘banker’ and really doesn’t appeal to the masses in same way as nadal and ‘fed-ex’ did….incidents like his covid vaccine stance in 2021 in oz and also the numerous ‘bag attacks’ with racket/ground attacked with racket etc….

Whether he was right or wrong isn't the point. It made him more unpopular is the point and that it certainly did.

People keep saying Alcaraz will have nobody to beat. He's 20, his greatest rivals could well be 16-18 right now and nowhere near the tour yet. There is a long way to go for him yet and we've no idea what is going to happen.

Me too.

Another thing that annoys me is the growing dependence on "their box". Every single point, good or bad, they look straight up to the box, it's like they can no longer play without affirmation from their team every 30 seconds - what ever happened to a player going out on court and just playing their game, and having to deal with whatever happens as best they can?

I was interested to hear Ivan Lendl saying early on in Wimbledon that he thought the courtside coaching being allowed was bullshít - he said the players should be able to just go and play their game - but I suppose the fact that it was happening anyway, in all but name, influenced the decision.

I thought this was the wrong shot choice many times in the final against Djokovic. Think Alcatraz lost more points with it than won. :pac