LONDON – Carlos Alcaraz played a perfect match in the Wimbledon final until he had three championship points, which he wasted with one double fault and other unforced errors. Novak Djokovic’s comeback could have come, but the Spaniard, fearless, was confident in how well he was playing: “Relax, nothing changes, I’m still here”.
“The normal thing is that he would have lost in the third set after that situation, right?” told CLAY Antonio Martínez Cascales, who is part of the two-time Wimbledon champion’s team and who closely followed the final from the Spaniard’s box.
At 5-4 in the third set, the Serb broke and then forced the Spaniard to force a tiebreak, an instance in which the 21-year-old tennis player continued with his good level to clinch the defense of the title.
In the most difficult moment within the comfort in which he lived during the match, Alcaraz addressed words full of confidence to his team, as Martinez revealed. “He has come close to the bench and told us ‘Relax, I’m still here, nothing changes. I’m still going to be there’. And then he was able to pull himself together, make it 6-6 and play in a very good tiebreak. There are no Grand Slam finals as comfortable as this one.”
“It’s not often things like this happen, that a player plays almost perfect against Djokovic. He was perfect for two sets, and then in the third, it is also very important that he was able to overcome a very complicated situation, such as losing three match balls with his own serve”, explained the “coach’s coach”: Martinez Cascales is the mentor of Alcaraz’s coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero.
His mistakes forced by nerves when he had to close the match could have been a turning point. Alcaraz knew it well. He confessed to have felt “very far away” from the title, even with his serve and with three match points in his favour. His rival woke up so many times in instances where he seemed dead, and he was very clear about it. “We have seen so many times Djokovic turning matches around, so I was very alert. That moment has been a little bit of a blip,” Alcaraz said.
“It’s good that situations like that happened!” appraised Martinez. “Well, now we say it after he passed the test after losing three championship balls. That is for the future a relevant experience, then when something like that happens to him again, he can think that it happened to him in the Wimbledon final and that it is nothing new,” Martinez told CLAY.
“The only thing Juan Carlos said to him is to stay calm, ‘you don’t have any problem with the rhythm that Djokovic is putting on you’. Put not much, as there have been no more problems. He has been very dominant”.
Alcaraz, fearless, showed mental toughness when Djokovic could have started the comeback.
