Tim Henman explained what he expects to see from Carlos Alcaraz in the Wimbledon final.
The 21-year-old’s title defence at SW19 has not been plain sailing, but he has fought his way to the championship match and is on the cusp of more success at the grass court Grand Slam.
He will face the toughest test of all when he takes on Novak Djokovic in a rematch from their epic 2023 final on Sunday.
The Spaniard has shown patches of his best form throughout the fortnight, but he will need to be at his very best to defeat a player who is gunning for revenge after the heartache he experienced a year ago.
What does Tim Henman think will be different about Carlos Alcaraz in the Wimbledon final?
During the 2024 Wimbledon Championships, Henman identified one area of improvement regarding Alcaraz.
The British number one thinks the World number three has shown small lapses in concentration, which he believes explains why the player has dropped some sets.
But ahead of Sunday’s final, Henman does not expect any dips in focus from Alcaraz when he takes on the seven-time Wimbledon champion.
“Djokovic has the experience and grass court know how to take advantage of those dips. But I think if Alcaraz is up against Djokovic then it’s a different kettle of fish,” Henman told the BBC.
“I think his focus, attention and respect to his opponent will be very different and that means we might see top gear from Alcaraz. If both of them are playing well at the same time then we could be in for an absolute epic.”
How did Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic reach the Wimbledon final?
Alcaraz began his title defence with a win over qualifier Mark Lajal. Though he won in straight sets it did not come easy as he battled through the first two sets before comfortably winning the third.
After the first set he was relatively untroubled against Aleksandar Vukic, before he needed five sets to defeat an inspired Francis Tiafoe.
Alcaraz then completed a hat-trick of four-set wins over Ugo Humbert, Tommy Paul and Daniil Medvedev to reach his second successive Wimbledon final.
Djokovic opened his Wimbledon campaign with an emphatic win over Vit Kopriva for the loss of just five games, before completing back-to-back four set wins against Jacob Fearnley and Alexei Popyrin.
The 37-year-old produced his best performance against Holger Rune in round four and reached the semi-finals via a walkover after Alex de Minaur withdrew due to injury.
Djokovic is now ready to challenge Alcaraz after beating Lorenzo Musetti 6-4, 7-6(2) in the semi-finals.
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