World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz after winning his first grass court championship: “Novak Djokovic Favourite to Win Wimbledon”

After winning his first championship on grass on Sunday by defeating Alex de Minaur 6-4, 6-4 in the Queen’s Club final, Carlos Alcaraz thinks he can win Wimbledon.

With his fifth championship of the year, the Spaniard returns to the top of the global rankings, but he also said that Novak Djokovic is still the favorite to win Wimbledon for an eighth time in the next month.

Alcaraz was competing in just his third event on grass and shown excellent growth over the week at Queen’s after coming close to losing to French fortunate loser Arthur Rinderknech in the first round.

The US Open winner is hopeful of making it into Wimbledon’s fourth round for the first time after winning his last four matches without losing a set.

“I’m feeling really confident going into Wimbledon. I felt like one of the favorites to win Wimbledon after finishing the week playing at a great level, but I still need to gain more experience on grass, said Alcaraz.

“Novak is the heavy favorite to win Wimbledon, but I’ll attempt to play at this level to have a chance of beating him or reaching the championship match.

I read that Novak has more Wimbledon victories than the other top 20 players combined. How much do you know about that? The favorite to win Wimbledon is Novak. That much is clear.

But I’ll make an effort to compete at this level so I may have a chance to defeat him or reach the Wimbledon final.

Since 2018, Djokovic has been supreme at SW19. Since losing to Andy Murray in the final on Centre Court, he hasn’t had a loss there in ten years.

But if the top two seeds do face off in the final, Alcaraz wants the audience to be on his side.

“I saw that Djokovic has gone 10 years without dropping a game on Center Court since he lost to Andy in 2013, which is incredible. But I do want to improve that statistic with the support of the audience.

On his way to the final, De Minaur eliminated Murray and Holger Rune, the sixth-ranked player in the world.

However, Alcaraz’s capacity to score crucial points in a close game caused the Australian to lament it.

De Minaur said, “I’m satisfied because I know I gave it my best and I try to play the manner that I want to play.

“So that’s a huge plus for me going into Wimbledon,” she said.

De Minaur led the opening set 4-3 and had two break opportunities to serve for the match.

However, Alcaraz answered by keeping service and breaking the world number 18 in the next game before serving out the set.

He subsequently required extensive therapy as his right quad was strapped.

Alcaraz again capitalized on his lone break opportunity to go up 3-2 in the second set as his mobility seemed unaffected.

In the decisive game, Alcaraz was down 0-30 until De Minaur made two uncommon mistakes that gave him some chance.

However, the Spaniard’s powerful serve saved him, as four consecutive points resulted in victory and a return to world number one.