The king isn’t dead, but his successor is here.
World No.1 Carlos Alcaraz overcame a nightmare opening half hour on Sunday night to defeat tennis legend Novak Djokovic and become the youngest man to complete a career grand slam with his maiden Australian Open title.
Alcaraz’s 2-6, 6-2, 6-3, 7-5 triumph over 10-time champion Djokovic also made him the first men’s player to win seven major singles championships before turning 23.
There was more to this turnaround than a lucky net cord, but that fortune in the third game of the second set – when an Alcaraz forehand dropped tamely over the tape – helped propel the smiling on-court assassin to a match-altering first break that he never looked back from.
Alcaraz had already twice won each of the other three slams at Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open, but never ventured beyond the quarter-finals at Melbourne Park until his history-shaping past fortnight.
He is 18 months younger than fellow Spaniard Rafael Nadal was when he set the previous record with his win at the 2010 US Open. Alcaraz joins an exclusive group of men to have won all four majors: Fred Perry, Don Budge, Rod Laver, Roy Emerson, Andre Agassi, Roger Federer, Nadal and Djokovic.