Alcaraz blows away Djokovic to retain Wimbledon

Spain's Carlos Alcaraz produced an utterly ruthless performance to dismantle Serbia's Novak Djokovic 6-2, 6-2, 7-6 (7/4) in a rematch of last year's Wimbledon final to successfully defend his title on Sunday.

Alcaraz now has four Grand Slam trophies with a perfect record in major finals, after his two Wimbledon triumphs, his U.S. Open victory in 2022 and his French Open win last month.

Defeat denied Djokovic a 25th Grand Slam title to surpass Margaret Court in the all-time list and also equal Roger Federer's haul of eight men's singles titles at Wimbledon.

Alcaraz pounced on his fifth break point in a tight first game that lasted 14 minutes, before the 21-year-old third seed dropped the hammer and powered through the opening set on the back of some solid serving.

Second seed Djokovic came under more pressure at the start of the next set as Alcaraz bullied the 37-year-old in the early exchanges to break and capitalised on his service woes for an imposing two-set lead.

Djokovic and Alcaraz went toe-to-toe until 4-4 in the third set before the Spaniard broke with a big backhand winner to take a 5-4 lead. However, despite being 40-0 up, he squandered three match points and dropped serve.

He tamed his nerves to clinch victory in the tiebreak when Djokovic crashed a return into the net.

Factbox on Carlos Alcaraz

Age: 21

Country: Spain

ATP ranking: 3

Seeding: 3

Grand Slam titles: 4 (2022 U.S. Open, 2023 Wimbledon, 2024 French Open, 2024 Wimbledon)

ROAD TO FINAL

First round: Mark Lajal (Estonia) 7-6(3) 7-5 6-2

Second round: Aleksandar Vukic (Australia) 7-5(5) 6-2 6-2

Third round: 29-Frances Tiafoe (U.S.) 5-7 6-2 4-6 7-6(2) 6-2

Round of 16: 16-Ugo Humbert (France) 6-3 6-4 1-6 7-5

Quarter-finals: 12-Tommy Paul (U.S.) 5-7 6-4 6-2 6-2

Semi-finals: 5-Daniil Medvedev (Russia) 6-7(1) 6-3 6-4 6-4

EARLY LIFE

* Born in El Palmar, Alcaraz started playing tennis at the age of four at the Real Sociedad Club de Campo de Murcia, where his father was the tennis academy director.

CAREER TO DATE

* Made his ATP main-draw debut aged 16 at the 2020 Rio Open.

* In 2021 Alcaraz became the youngest man in the professional era to reach the U.S. Open quarter-finals.

* Became the first teenager to beat compatriot Rafa Nadal and Serbian Djokovic, who head the list of men's Grand Slam winners, in the same tournament — and on consecutive days — to win his second ATP Masters 1000 title at the 2022 Madrid Open.

* Outclassed Norwegian Casper Ruud to clinch his first major title at the 2022 U.S. Open, becoming the youngest champion at Flushing Meadows since American Pete Sampras (19) in 1990. That year, at 19 years, four months and six days, he became the youngest world number one in ATP rankings history.

* Went on to win nine titles as a teenager, behind only Bjorn Borg, Nadal, Mats Wilander, Boris Becker and Andre Agassi.

* Defeated Djokovic to win the 2023 Wimbledon. He became the first man outside the 'Big Four' of Djokovic, Nadal, Roger Federer and Andy Murray to win at the All England Club since 2002.

* Beat Alexander Zverev in the 2024 French Open final to become the youngest man, at 21, to win Grand Slam titles on all three surfaces -- hard, grass and clay.

* Beat Djokovic again at the 2024 Wimbledon final, taking his Grand Slam final win-loss record to 4-0. He became just the sixth man in the professional era to win the French Open-Wimbledon double in the same year after Rod Laver, Borg, Nadal, Federer and Djokovic.