New stars on court

THE weekend witnessed the thrilling rise of tennis stars in the men’s and women’s categories of the fiercely competitive game as they slammed the odds to emerge triumphant. The new Wimbledon men’s champion from Spain, 20-year-old Carlos Alcaraz, proved in the exciting five-set final on Centre Court that he had the nerves of steel essential to defeat a legend and seven-time winner, Novak Djokovic. Even as Djokovic, 36, lost the chance to equal Roger Federer’s Wimbledon record, his summing up of his gritty rival best describes Alcaraz’s winning skillset. The Spaniard’s Grand Slam trophy was rendered grander when Djokovic lavishly praised him after the match by pronouncing Alcaraz as a complete player endowed with a mix of the best qualities of the sport’s ‘Big Three’: Djokovic, Federer and Rafael Nadal.

Equally exquisite was the achievement of Czech Marketa Vondrousova, who beat Tunisian Ons Jabeur to become the first unseeded player in the professional era to win the Wimbledon women’s singles crown. Even as Jabeur’s dream, like in 2022, of becoming the first African to win the title was shattered, the 24-year-old Vondrousova’s victory was all the more sweet — for not only did she come out stronger despite undergoing a wrist surgery last year but also proved wrong her sponsor Nike, which had underestimated her grit and dropped her earlier.

As the two young players remained unfazed in the face of tough competition and pulled off stunning and historic victories, with Alcaraz emphatically proving that he owned the grass court as much as the clay surface, they are in the game for the long haul. Tennis fans can look forward to exhilarating battles between the new generation of tennis stars and Djokovic and Nadal, who have proved that the 30s are the new 20s.