CARLOS ALCARAZ THE NEW KING OF TENNIS

They would head to a tiebreaker, Djokovic's dominion: He had won all six such set-enders he played at Wimbledon leading up to the final and 15 straight in Grand Slam action..

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A poor start left Carlos Alcaraz a single point from a two-set hole against Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon final. That sort of deficit is daunting for anyone, let alone a 20-year-old in his second major final, and against anyone, let alone Djokovic, someone who hadn't lost at Centre Court in a decade, someone seeking a fifth consecutive championship and record-tying eighth overall, at the All England Club. He won the year's first two Grand Slam tournaments and 23 over his career.

Ah, but last year's U.S. Open champ Alcaraz wanted this shot at Djokovic, someone he called "a legend of our sport." Said it would make winning Wimbledon that much more special. And so Alcaraz managed to come through in that tiebreaker as choruses of “Carlos! Carlos!” from the stands competed with cries of his older, more experienced, more accomplished foe's two-syllable nickname, "No-le! No-le!” And then Alcaraz came through in a 32-point, 25-minute game masterpiece soon after that. And, crucially, the Spaniard came through in the crucible of a fifth set, too. Add it all up, and the No. 1-ranked Alcaraz marked himself as the star people have been predicting he would be, transforming potential into triumph and putting an end to Djokovic’s 34-match winning streak at the All-England Club all in one fell swoop by edging him 1-6, 7-6 (6), 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 in an engaging, back-and-forth final on Sunday. Alcaraz claimed his first title at Wimbledon and second Grand Slam trophy overall.