Djokovic and Alcaraz slugged it out today for nearly 5 hours over 5 sets at Wimbledon. It was truly a heavyweight battle with haymakers all over the place. While the 5th set was close (6-4 for Alcaraz), the stat sheet showed that Alcaraz led in winners 18 – 3. Djokovic fought until the end, total points were 168 – 167 for Alcaraz, but the Spaniard was the better player today.
Djokovic admitted in the post-match media conference that he has never played a player as complete as Alcaraz, and that he saw aspects of Federer, Nadal and himself in his game. Alcaraz is clearly a “generational talent” and at 20 years old, he already has won Grand Slams at the US Open on hardcourts and now Wimbledon on grass. And clay is his best surface! What is inspiring for tennis is that Alcaraz has all of the shots – he can play the net extremely well, has a crazy good drop shot and is super fast around the court. Younger players coming up through the ranks should take notice that you need more than strong ground strokes. If you can play the net, you can separate yourself from the pack.
Will Alcaraz now go out and win every major tournament? It’s not that easy and he has had some health issues. Time will tell. We can only hope to see the top players (Sinner, Djokovic, Rune, Nadal, Medvedev) all be in the mix for the next couple of years. Alcaraz may indeed end up on top in many of these but SU says it’s not a given.
Now, one team starting to separate themselves from the pack is the Yankees – and not in a good way. They fire the hitting coach because you can’t fire the players. It’s the same reason that managers get fired. Brutal loss today as the bullpen imploded. The offense is terrible and that is their problem. However, some signs of hope:
Josh Donaldson went on the IL. SU wishes him well. But they finally brought up Peraza and he should be in there every day. That is the problem with the Yankees. They stick with the veterans too long. Let’s play the youngsters and see what you have. They are in last place – tied with Boston – and currently out of the playoffs. Losing 2 out of 3 to the awful Rockies is unacceptable. Next up are the Angels where the Yankees always play poorly no matter how bad they are. The team is borderline unwatchable at the moment.
And so are the Mets. Will both teams be sellers at the trade deadline in a couple of weeks?
Sports Update Intergalactic 
Yankee bullpen has now blown a multiple run lead in each of the last three series- Boone bristled at a question in the postgame news conference as to whether the Yankees can be thought of as a championship team if they lost a series to the worst team in the National League but the answer is “no” and it will (and should) cost him his job.
Best example of Alcaraz’s talent and confidence. Serving for the match, he unsuccessfully tries a drop shot on the first point. Does he panic and say to himself I better not try that anymore? Nope- he uses it on the very next point and it works- great match.