It was clear just how much Carlos Alcaraz had improved in the space of a year when he outplayed Novak Djokovic in Sunday’s Wimbledon decider.
When the two met in the same match last year, Alcaraz played at the limits of his capacity and won a five-set battle for the ages to earn his first Wimbledon trophy.
Twelve months later, he handed Djokovic one of the heaviest Grand Slam final defeats of his career.
Alcaraz powered to a 6-2 6-2 7-6(4) triumph to defend his Wimbledon title and win his second straight major trophy, after Roland Garros last month.
Completing the prized Roland Garros-Wimbledon double in one season is something only five other men – Rod Laver, Bjorn Borg, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Djokovic – have done in the Open era.
Alcaraz is now a perfect 4-0 in Grand Slam finals.
“It is a great feeling. Obviously it was a great match for me,” Alcaraz said.
“Obviously Novak didn't play his best the first two sets, a lot of mistakes. I made the most of that.
“It is a great feeling even thinking about being French Open winner and Wimbledon champion the same year, that few players just done it before. It's unbelievable.
“I try to realise that I won Wimbledon twice and try to feel that it was the same feeling as last year.”
It must be said Alcaraz was not facing the version of Djokovic who fought him for more than four-and-a-half hours in last year’s Wimbledon final.
This year’s rematch could have been even more one-sided had Alcaraz converted one of three championship points he held on serve at 5-4, 40-0 in the third set.
Djokovic, now 37, was appearing in his first final of 2024 and just over a month earlier had undergone surgery to repair a meniscus tear.
Still, he had outplayed fourth-round opponent Holger Rune and semifinal foe Lorenzo Musetti in straight-sets masterclasses, and had also beaten Alcaraz in their two previous meetings.
Alcaraz was certainly not taking the 24-time major champion lightly.
“The work that Novak has done has been unbelievable. Put himself the chance to be able to play the tournament and making the final, it's something out of this world for me,” Alcaraz said.
“I beat him today, but for me Novak is still being like a Superman.”
Beating ‘Superman’ in last year’s Wimbledon final was one of two matches which had a profound impact on Alcaraz and contributed to the result on Sunday.
He’d learned from what he’d done wrong at moments in the 2023 decider and tried not to repeat it, and felt much calmer prior to this final.
“I felt like I wasn't new any more. I've been in this situation before,” he said.
“I managed pretty well the match. I remember in that last year final, it was pretty different things. Really much better for me (this time around).”
He’d also learned plenty from his semifinal loss to Daniil Medvedev at last year’s US Open, where he was defending champion.
Alcaraz said at the time he was not mature enough to handle such matches, and vowed things would be different as his career progressed.
“I remember perfectly. I gave up a little bit in the second set after losing the first one,” Alcaraz recalled. “It's something that is unacceptable playing in a Grand Slam. I knew that these things can't happen again.”
Alcaraz has lost just one Grand Slam match since that moment.
But it is not only mental gains that demonstrate his growth. He is wielding a more improved, bigger game on court, too.
Alcaraz averaged a first-serve speed of 196km/h against Djokovic – his equal-fastest of the tournament, along with his third-round match against Frances Tiafoe – and sent down his fastest serve of the fortnight at 218km/h.
“I've never seen him serve that way, to be honest. 136 (miles per hour). Maybe I was missing something this tournament, but I've never seen him serve that fast,” Djokovic said.
“Overall he really outplayed me.”
Alcaraz acknowledged he had been specifically practising his serve during the fortnight, and that it was part of an overall focus to “keep improving everything”.
But there are bigger-picture goals in mind for the Spaniard, who at 21 years of age already owns major titles on all three surfaces and is achieving feats at his age only a select few greats have managed before him.
Alcaraz is targeting tennis immortality, and Sunday’s triumph at the All England Club put him a small step closer to just that.
“At the end of my career, I want to sit at the same table as the big guys,” said Alcaraz, who evened his head-to-head record against Djokovic at 3-3.
“That's my main goal. That's my dream right now. It doesn't matter if I already won four Grand Slams at the age of 21. If I'm not keep going, all these tournaments for me, it doesn't matter.
“I will try to keep winning and end my career with a lot of them. I don't know what is my limit. I don't want to think about it. I just want to keep enjoying my moment, just to keep dreaming. Let's see if at the end of my career it's going to be 25, 30, 15, four. I don't know.
“All I want to say is I want to keep enjoy, and let's see what is the future bring to me.”