SI:AM | Carlos Alcaraz Ushers in a New Generation

Plus, Australia and New Zealand’s approach to hosting the Women’s World Cup.

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I’m still thinking about Brett Baty’s embarrassing error on Saturday night.

In today’s SI:AM:

🎾 Carlos Alcaraz takes down Novak Djokovic

🇦🇺 A different kind of World Cup host

🏈 Tennessee’s slap on the wrist

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Four hours and 42 minutes of drama

For the past two decades, four men have ruled the grass courts at Wimbledon. Every men’s singles championship since 2003 was won by either Roger Federer, Andy Murray, Rafael Nadal or Novak Djokovic. Until yesterday, when Carlos Alcaraz denied Djokovic his eighth Wimbledon title in an epic five-set match.

The narrative surrounding the match was incredibly compelling. Djokovic is one of the most dominant players in the history of the tournament. With a win, he would have tied Federer and Bjorn Borg’s Open Era record of five straight Wimbledon champions. And at 36, he’s also the last member of the big three who’s still capable of playing championship-quality tennis. Then there’s Alcaraz, the 20-year-old champion of the 2022 U.S. Open. The stage was set for a changing of the guard.

And the match lived up to the hype. Jon Wertheim called it “a spellbinding insta-classic.” Alcaraz dropped the first set, 6–1, but shook off the early jitters and rebounded, emerging with the victory, 1–6, 7-6(6), 6–1, 3–6, 6–4.

After quickly dropping the first set in a mere 34 minutes, Alcaraz turned the match around by narrowly winning the second set, Wertheim writes:

A few points from winning the second set, Djokovic retreated, and Alcaraz took advantage;

he didn’t so much win the second set as stole it

, in a tiebreaker, 7–6. He then rode the momentum in the third set, winning 6–1 and breaking Djokovic three times. For perspective, Djokovic had been broken three times in his previous six matches in this tournament combined. One set from the finish line, however, it was then Alcaraz’s turn to retreat, and Djokovic came to the fore. Displaying the same powers of escape that have defined his entire career, Djokovic went into his own beast mode and leveled the match. In the fifth set, it was Alcaraz who struck first, breaking Djokovic’s serve.

At one point Djokovic was so frustrated, he smashed his racket into the net post (which won him few fans and also fired up Alcaraz with an extra bit of confidence). For the last half hour of the match,

Alcaraz simply refused to relent to the immense pressure

. He held serve three times, including the final game, winning 6–4 and falling to his knees.

Serious tennis fans already knew what Alcaraz was capable of after he won the U.S. Open, but yesterday’s win over Djokovic is the kind of victory that will get casual fans to sit up and notice. Alcaraz is a two-time grand slam winner just two months after his 20th birthday. He earned it by dethroning an all-time great in a match that lasted almost five hours. Who knows whether Alcaraz will go on to enjoy the same sort of success that Federer, Nadal and Djokovic did over the past 20 years? But regardless of what he accomplishes in the future, Alcaraz’s victory signaled that a new generation of stars is on the doorstep.

The best of Sports Illustrated

Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP

• Alcaraz and Djokovic weren’t the only noteworthy stories at Wimbledon. Here are Jon Wertheim’s 50 parting thoughts from the tournament.
• Wertheim also wrote today’s Daily Cover story about Women’s World Cup cohosts Australia and New Zealand, and how they hope to highlight social issues in contrast to last year’s men’s World Cup in Qatar.
• Conor Orr is kicking off The MMQB’s Bad Takes Week with a proposal to expand the NFL preseason.
• Tennessee’s lenient punishment from the NCAA is indicative of a new approach to rules violations, Pat Forde writes.
• The Reds are really going for it. They’re calling up another top prospect.
• Bryce Harper is set to play defense this week for the first time since injuring his arm in April 2022.
• A fan sparked a massive crash at the Tour de France while trying to take a selfie. (The situation is remarkably similar to the woman who caused a crash at the 2021 Tour by trying to show a sign to the television cameras. She was handed a four-month suspended jail sentence.)

The top five...

… things I saw yesterday:

5. Stephen Curry’s eagle putt to win the American Century Championship.

4. Robert MacIntyre’s stunning shot from the rough on the final hole of the Scottish Open. (This angle is even cooler.)

3. Rory McIlroy’s equally impressive 2-iron on the same hole. He beat MacIntyre by one stroke to win.

2. Yankees announcer John Flaherty’s unbelievable jinx.

1. This epic break point between Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic.

SIQ

Who set the WNBA’s single-game scoring record (53 points) on this day in 2018?

• Elena Delle Donne
• Breanna Stewart
• Maya Moore
• Liz Cambage

Friday’s SIQ: CBS aired the first color TV broadcast of a sporting event on July 14, 1951. Which sport was it?

• Baseball
• Horse racing
• Tennis
• Boxing

Answer: Horse racing. The first color TV broadcast of any time had occurred just weeks earlier, on June 25, when CBS aired a variety show called Premiere. On July 14, the network decided to air a sporting event for the first time. It picked the Molly Pitcher Handicap horse race from Monmouth Park Jockey Club in Oceanport, N.J.

While the first televised sporting event of any kind was a 1939 baseball game between Columbia and Princeton broadcast by NBC, it wasn’t until a month later that audiences first got to watch a baseball game in color. CBS aired a Dodgers-Braves game in Brooklyn on Aug. 11, 1951.

That was a big year for sports on TV. Also in 1951, Chicago’s WGN invented the center field camera that has since become the standard for baseball broadcasts.