Wimbledon 2024 live updates (2024)

• Carlos Alcaraz beats Novak Djokovic to win the men's singles final
• Catherine, Princess of Wales, presented the trophies on Centre Court
• Gonzalez/Olmos vs Zielinski/Hsieh (7) in the mixed doubles final
• Barbora Krejcikova (31) beat Jasmine Paolini (7) in the ladies' final
• Watch on the BBC in the UK, ESPN and ABC in the US

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Iga Swiatek started flirting with a very strange idea last fall. As the tennis season wound down, Swiatek had every reason to stick with the formula that had delivered her to the top of the mountain. Instead, she floated the idea of spending part of her off-season training — on grass.

She would not play another grass-court tournament for nearly eight months. Tennis spends the first three months of the season on hard courts. The Australian Open, a classic hard-court event, was a little more than six weeks away.

None of this stopped visions of tennis on the sport’s ultimate grass, at Wimbledon’s All England Club, dancing through her mind. “I had these ideas,” Swiatek said last month as she sat next to the French Open trophy in Paris. (Her coach had told her that these ideas were terrible.)

Then came the flex. “If I would lose here earlier, maybe I would be able to play two more weeks on grass, and then be a better grass player.”

Ah, the champion’s lament — and in Swiatek’s case a very specific one. She’s a wondrous player; a generational talent who could quit tomorrow and walk into the Hall of Fame. But the Pole, like so many who have come before her, knows that her career will remain incomplete unless she wins Wimbledon.

Here is why.

Seventh seeds Jan Zielinski and Hsieh Su-wei have just taken the first set 6-4 in the mixed doubles final against unseeded Mexicans Santiago Gonzalez and Giuliana Olmos.

One down, one to go...

Becoming the youngest man to win a Grand Slam title on all three surfaces is a testament to two qualities that separate Carlos Alcaraz from the rest: his variety and his dedication. The feat would be impossible without them and it’s still an achievement so tough that it has eluded some of the game’s greats.

Winning a major on clay, hard and grass is something Pete Sampras, John McEnroe (both no clay) and Ivan Lendl (not on grass), plus otherwise all-conquering champions such as Venus Williams and Justine Henin, couldn’t muster.

Alcaraz has not just done it, but he’s done it at a younger age, 21, than any man previously — beating fellow Spaniard Rafael Nadal’s previous record by 19 months.

To understand how Alcaraz pulled this off, we have to go back a lot further than the three majors he has won: the 2022 U.S. Open, Wimbledon a year later, and the French Open, thanks to a five-set win against Alexander Zverev in a dramatic final last month.

Read more below.

Pretty good time for Alcaraz to produce his best serving performance of the tournament.

Pretty bad time for Djokovic's net play to fall off a cliff — exacerbated by the psychological pressure of Alcaraz's foot speed and massive return of serve gap to everybody else.

It was fitting that Alcaraz served out this match in a tiebreak because the game in which he botched serving for the match was a complete aberration in an otherwise masterful serving performance.

Alcaraz came into this match with a first-serve-points won percentage of 72 for the Championships, the 68th-best in the men’s event. Serving had been a real issue, having been broken multiple times in his six matches before the final.

On Sunday, he produced his best serving performance of the tournament. Alcaraz was just a point away from registering only the third completed Grand Slam tournament match in which Djokovic could not break his opponent’s serve.

Giving up just a single break to such a devastating returner underlined the serving rhythm he found. Alcaraz kept his speeds high, but crucially he kept hitting his spots too, and was brave with his second serves.

There was one second serve at the start of the third set to get him out of a tight game that landed plum on the line and completely bamboozled Djokovic. In Sunday’s final, Wimbledon got a glimpse of how irresistible he is when this area of his game clicks.

So much had to go right for Djokovic to even get a chance to play Alcaraz in the Wimbledon final 39 days after undergoing surgery on the meniscus in his right knee. Ultimately, it might have gone too right as he looked to play himself back into shape.

Djokovic got lucky, not just by drawing a qualifier and a wild card in the first two rounds, but by seeing Alcaraz and world No 1 Jannik Sinner land on the other side of the draw. Then he played Alexei Popyrin, who had little Centre Court experience, and a formless Holger Rune.

His next opponent posed what appeared to be a formidable test — Alex de Minaur, another Aussie, a lover of grass and, most importantly, a top-10 player with the wheels and the engine to run all day. De Minaur was even showing some newly acquired power, to hang with Djokovic when he revs through the gears.

But De Minaur tore his hip cartilage and pulled out, leaving Djokovic with more rest before he played Alcaraz, five steps up in toughness. By the time he had raised his level to where it needed to be to hang with Alcaraz, Djokovic was down two sets.

So much different. Too different. Everything had gone right — when he just needed a little on-court adversity to be ready for this ultimate test.

One of tennis’ most difficult psychological tests is playing a match against an ailing opponent. That’s any match, against any ailing opponent — let alone a Wimbledon final against a 24-time Grand Slam champion.

Just a few games in, it was clear that Djokovic was far from full fitness — hardly a surprise just over five weeks after meniscus surgery. While a half-fit Djokovic can still take care of most of the field on grass, Alcaraz is not most of the field.

Tennis is a sport of plans and reverting from those patterns is much trickier than it looks — but Alcaraz took full advantage of an opponent whose movement is compromised. Alcaraz ultimately gave an exhibition on how to cope with an opponent not at 100 per cent.

He didn’t massively change his approach, or start indiscriminately chucking in drop shots. He played attacking, percentage tennis, taking advantage of the holes in Djokovic’s game created by his knee.

Predominantly, this was a performance of controlled aggression. It demonstrated the exceptional maturity of this 21-year-old.

Notes from the first game of a final match. It lasted 12 minutes. There were seven deuces. Djokovic seemed like he had to hit 50 serves. A sound emanated from his lungs after each one, more moan or groan than intimidating grunt. It was too hard, too early.

Back and forth they go, another break-point chance for Djokovic. A big serve sets up an easy forehand into the open court, especially for a player who has won 24 Grand Slam titles. A big breath. Contact. It sails wide.

It’s 1-0 Alcaraz, and it really shouldn’t matter, because first games don’t matter in five-set tennis matches, and with Djokovic, first sets barely matter either.

But this game feels like it does, not just because it was hard — really hard — but because it was so much harder than so many of his first games in his 36 other Grand Slam finals. That number, ridiculous as it seems, is not wrong. It was a fitting start to a very hard afternoon.

Read more below.

There is one major match still to be played today: the mixed doubles final.

Mexicans Santiago Gonzalez and Giuliana Olmos play seventh seeds Jan Zielinski and Hsieh Su-wei.

Carlos Alcaraz beat Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon final at the All England Club 6-2, 6-2, 7-6 on Sunday.

The No 3 seed prevailed over the No 2 seed in a one-sided victory, ultimately decided by Djokovic’s hampered movement after knee surgery, Alcaraz’s massively improved serve, and his psychological edge over Djokovic in net exchanges.

It is Alcaraz’s second Wimbledon title and his fourth Grand Slam singles title. He completed the ‘Surface Slam‘, winning on grass, clay and hard courts, by beating Alexander Zverev in the French Open final at Roland Garros in June.

It was Djokovic’s first straight-sets defeat at Wimbledon since the 2013 final, when he lost to Andy Murray. Below, The Athletic’s writers, Charlie Eccleshare and Matt Futterman, analyze the final and what it means for tennis. Enjoy.

Carlos Alcaraz has fulfilled his end of an historic sporting double for Spain.

He beat Novak Djokovic to win the Wimbledon title for a second year in a row — with time to spare to watch his beloved La Roja play England tonight.

The Athletic's Charlie Eccleshare, Pol Ballus, and Mario Cortegana wrote on the love affair between Alcaraz and Spain's men's football team.

Check it out below.

There’s almost nothing in tennis I wait for more than a Novak Djokovic on-court interview. Especially after the fiery crowd comments and the ‘air violin’ playing (which he said was for his daughter who is in the crowd today), almost nobody does drama like this guy.

He was a bit of a different elder statesmen today, however. He started off with a joke and humbled himself pretty immediately by giving Alcaraz credit for ‘having it all today’.

I appreciated his self-reflection and gratitude and the fact that he avoided the earlier interactions he had with the crowd.

Combine that with a really nice at-the-net embrace he had with Carlos and this appears to be somewhat of a changed man.

A couple of great jokes about his son’s future in tennis as well. Really impressed with Novak’s attitude and presentation out there today.