There was that tiebreaker pretty early in the Wimbledon final on Sunday, when the 36-year-old Serb was one point from taking a two-sets-to-none lead over his 20-year-old opponent, Carlos Alcaraz.
And then there was that missed volley on break point early in the fifth set with all the momentum at that stage going the seven-time Wimbledon champion’s way.
“Some regrets,” Djokovic said after losing 1-6, 7-6 (6), 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 in a high-energy and highly entertaining championship match on Centre Court. “I had my chances. I think I could have closed out that second-set tiebreaker better. But credit to him for fighting and showing some incredible defensive skills, passing shots that got him the break in the fifth.
“He was a deserved winner today, no doubt.”
Djokovic has been a deserved winner on so many occasions in the past. Seven times right here at the All England Club, where he was one victory from matching Roger Federer with a men’s record eight titles at the grass-court Grand Slam. And 23 times overall at major championships, tied with Serena Williams for the most in the Open era, which began in 1968.
Back in 2019, for instance, Federer was going for his ninth Wimbledon title while Djokovic was the defending champion. Federer had two match points in the fifth set, but Djokovic saved them both, forced a tiebreaker at 12-12 and then ran away to claim his fifth championship.
“I’ve won some epic finals that I was very close to losing,” said Djokovic, who had earlier mentioned those match points in his on-court interview during the trophy ceremony. “Maybe this is kind of a fair-and-square deal, I guess, to lose a match like this for me here.”
After breezing through the first set on a windy day, the pair traded breaks of serve early in the second ahead of the eventual tiebreaker.
Djokovic took a 3-0 lead, and having won his last 15 tiebreakers in Grand Slam play, it was looking good for the four-time defending champion. But Alcaraz won three straight points, including a 109 mph ace, to get back even. Then, with a set point and Alcaraz serving at 6-5, Djokovic put a backhand into the net. And then another.
“The backhands kind of let me down, to be honest,” Djokovic said. “Set point, I missed the backhand. He did play a backhand that was quite long in the court, had a little bit of a bad bounce. But I should not have missed that shot.
“Then on 6-all, again, another backhand from middle of the court in the net. Just two very poor backhands. That’s it. The match shifted to his side. It turned around.”
Djokovic hasn’t missed too many of those shots over the years. In fact, his last loss at Wimbledon was way back in 2017 when he retired in the second set from his quarterfinal match with an injury. His last loss on Centre Court was in the 2013 final against Andy Murray.
“Beating Novak at his best, in this stage, making history,” Alcaraz said, “being the guy to beat him after 10 years unbeaten on that court, is amazing for me.”
That other point Djokovic mentioned? The other regret? That miss was even more surprising — especially coming from a guy who has made a career of making shot after shot and waiting for his opponents to mess up.
Alcaraz was serving in the second game of the final set and Djokovic had what looked to be an easy volley to break for a 2-0 lead — the kind of lead he doesn’t often relinquish. But his forehand went into the top of the net instead of over it, allowing Alcaraz to recover. In the very next game, the Spaniard broke, giving him the edge he needed to win his second major title after last year’s U.S. Open championship.
“I managed to regroup and regain the momentum midway in the fourth (set),” Djokovic said. “I felt that the momentum shifted to my side. That was my chance. That was my opportunity. That break point, I think I played a really good point, kind of set up that drive volley.
“It was very, very windy today. The wind kind of, yeah, took it to an awkward place where I couldn’t hit the smash, I had to hit the drive volley kind of falling back. I saw him perfectly running to the opposite corner. I kind of wanted to wrong-foot him with that drive volley, and I missed.”
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — DeMar DeRozan scored 27 points in a record-setting performance and the Sacramento Kings beat the Toronto Raptors 122-107 on Wednesday night.
Domantas Sabonis added 17 points, 13 assists and 11 rebounds for his third triple-double of the season for Sacramento. He shot 6 for 6 from the field and 5 for 5 at the free-throw line.
Keegan Murray chipped in with 22 points and 12 rebounds, and De’Aaron Fox scored 21.
The 35-year-old DeRozan has scored at least 20 points in each of his first eight games with the Kings, breaking a franchise mark established by Chris Webber when he reached 20 in his first seven games with Sacramento in 1999.
DeRozan spent the past three seasons with the Chicago Bulls. The six-time All-Star also has played for Toronto and San Antonio during his 16-year NBA career.
RJ Barrett had 23 points to lead the Raptors. Davion Mitchell scored 20 in his first game in Sacramento since being traded to Toronto last summer.
Takeaways
Raptors: Toronto led for most of the first three quarters before wilting in the fourth. The Raptors were outscored 33-14 in the final period.
Kings: Fox played strong defense but struggled again shooting from the floor as he is dealing with a finger injury. Fox went 5 for 17 and just 2 of 8 on 3-pointers. He is 5 for 25 from beyond the arc in his last three games.
Key moment
The Kings trailed 95-89 early in the fourth before going on a 9-0 run that gave them the lead for good. DeRozan started the spurt with a jumper, and Malik Monk scored the final seven points.
Key stat
Sabonis had the eighth game in the NBA since at least 1982-83 with a triple-double while missing no shots from the field or foul line. The previous player to do it was Josh Giddey for Oklahoma City against Portland on Jan. 11.
Up next
Raptors: At the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday night, the third stop on a five-game trip.
VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Whitecaps are one win away from moving on to the next round of the Major League Soccer playoffs.
To get there, however, the Whitecaps will need to pull off the improbable by defeating the powerhouse Los Angeles FC for a second straight game.
Vancouver blanked the visitors 3-0 on Sunday to level their best-of-three first-round playoff series at a game apiece. As the matchup shifts back to California for a decisive Game 3 on Friday, the Whitecaps are looking for a repeat performance, said striker Brian White.
“We take the good and the bad from last game, learn from what we could have done better and go to LAFC with confidence and, obviously, with a whole lot of respect,” he said.
“We know that we can go there and give them a very good fight and hopefully come away with a win.”
The winner of Friday’s game will face the No. 4-seed Seattle Sounders in a one-game Western Conference semifinal on Nov. 23 or 24.
The ‘Caps finished the regular season eighth in the west with a 13-13-8 record and have since surprised many with their post-season play.
First, Vancouver trounced its regional rivals, the Portland Timbers, 5-0 in a wild-card game. Then, the squad dropped a tightly contested 2-1 decision to the top-seeded L.A. before posting a decisive home victory on Sunday.
Vancouver has scored seven goals this post-season, second only to the L.A. Galaxy (nine). Vancouver also leads the league in expected goals (6.84) through the playoffs.
No one outside of the club expected the Whitecaps to win when the Vancouver-L. A. series began, said defender Ranko Veselinovic.
“We’ve shown to ourselves that we can compete with them,” he said.
Now in his fifth season with the ‘Caps, Veselinovic said Friday’s game will be the biggest he’s played for the team.
“We haven’t had much success in the playoffs so, definitely, this is the one that can put our season on another level,” he said.
This is the second year in a row the Whitecaps have faced LAFC in the first round of the playoffs and last year, Vancouver was ousted in two straight games.
The team isn’t thinking about revenge as it prepares for Game 3, White said.
“More importantly than (beating LAFC), we want to get to the next round,” he said. “LAFC’s a very good team. We’ve come up against them a number of times in different competitions and they always seem to get the better of us. So it’d be huge for us to get the better of them this time.”
Earning a win last weekend required slowing L.A.’s transition game and limiting offensive opportunities for the team’s big stars, including Denis Bouanga.
Those factors will be important again on Friday, said Whitecaps head coach Vanni Sartini, who warned that his team could face a different style of game.
“I think the most important thing is going to be to match their intensity at the beginning of the game,” he said. “Because I think they’re going to come at us a million miles per hour.”
The ‘Caps will once again look to captain Ryan Gauld for some offensive firepower. The Scottish attacking midfielder leads MLS in playoff goals with five and has scored in all three of Vancouver’s post-season appearances this year.
Gearing up for another do-or-die matchup is exciting, Gauld said.
“Knowing it’s a winner-takes-all kind of game, being in that kind of environment is nice,” he said. “It’s when you see the best in players.”
LAFC faces the bulk of the pressure heading into the matchup, Sartini said, given the club’s appearances in the last two MLS Cup finals and its 2022 championship title.
“They’re supposed to win and we are not,” the coach said. “But it’s beautiful to have a little bit of pressure on us, too.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.
Each PWHL team operated under its city name, with players wearing jerseys featuring the league’s logo in its inaugural season before names and logos were announced last month.
The Toronto Sceptres, Montreal Victoire, Ottawa Charge, Boston Fleet, Minnesota Frost and New York Sirens will start the PWHL’s second season on Nov. 30 with jerseys designed to reflect each team’s identity and to be sold to the public as replicas.
Led by PWHL vice-president of brand and marketing Kanan Bhatt-Shah, the league consulted Creative Agency Flower Shop to design the jerseys manufactured by Bauer, the PWHL said Thursday in a statement.
“Players and fans alike have been waiting for this moment and we couldn’t be happier with the six unique looks each team will don moving forward,” said PWHL senior vice president of business operations Amy Scheer.
“These jerseys mark the latest evolution in our league’s history, and we can’t wait to see them showcased both on the ice and in the stands.”
Training camps open Tuesday with teams allowed to carry 32 players.
Each team’s 23-player roster, plus three reserves, will be announced Nov. 27.
Each team will play 30 regular-season games, which is six more than the first season.
Minnesota won the first Walter Cup on May 29 by beating Boston three games to two in the championship series.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
