Andy
Roddick discussed on his podcast the reactions prompted by
Carlos Alcaraz's
emphatic victory over
Novak Djokovic to claim his second
Wimbledon trophy and
secure his fourth Grand Slam title. Roddick asserted that the Spaniard
successfully defended his title at SW19 and affirmed that Alcaraz is clearly
already a tennis legend.
The
former American world No. 1 also praised Djokovic despite his defeat. Roddick
considered Djokovic's journey to the final noteworthy and acknowledged that he
simply faced a player in the final who is "otherworldly.”
Roddick's
reactions were immediate, as he quickly shared a video expressing his
impressions of the Wimbledon final. The 2003 US Open champion analyzed the
circumstances under which Djokovic managed to reach another Grand Slam final,
considering his challenging 2024 season: "I remember after Indian Wells or
after, you know, Novak has it in there. Is he as good every single day as he
always has been? No,"
Andy Roddick stated.
"Can
he still get through a Wimbledon final? Think about getting through a Wimbledon
final on a knee that you had surgery on three weeks ago," the former world
No. 1 added. "Don't treat this match or this tournament like any sort of
disappointment. No form coming in, average fitness throughout the year, lots of
stops and starts, not a lot of reps. Wimbledon final, you lose to a guy that's
otherworldly and dominant."
"It's
pretty fun. I mean, in March, there were as many people saying Sinner is going
to have more slams than Alcaraz. It's the other way around now. Dollar in hand,
we got four. Think about this: just turned 21. Just turned 21 in the same
tournament that the great Andy Murray retires, one of the best tennis players
of all time. Alcaraz has more majors than Andy Murray."
Roddick
also highlighted that Alcaraz now has the opportunity to achieve the Career
Grand Slam at the upcoming Australian Open, and if he does, he could become the
youngest in history to accomplish this feat. In fact, he still has several
years ahead of him to achieve this: "He has like four or five years to be
the youngest to complete the career Grand Slam in Australia. He has like four
more Australian Opens where if he wins it, he's the youngest."
"Of
all the people who have completed the career Grand Slam, so you're looking at
(Rod) Laver, Andre (Agassi), Big-Three (Federer, Nadal, Djokovic), right? Of
those five that have completed it, Rafa is the youngest (24 years, 102 days).
So Alcaraz still has three or four chances in Australia to be the youngest to
ever complete the career Grand Slam."
"And
Rafa won his first Grand Slam at 17 years old so like we're watching it's
special and he does it like how lucky are we that in the vacuum of the Big Three
that not only we have this great player who is box office and Sinner who they
kind of operate in a different way but he's insanely fun to watch and he emotes
and he's happy and he's respectful and he's a steward of the game and it seems
like he doesn't really have bad days with media or opponents."