Andy Murray explains why he ‘took videos’ of Carlos Alcaraz’s Wimbledon win vs Djokovic…See full details
Andy Murray has explained that he made videos of this year’s Wimbledon final between Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic to get a better insight into the duo’s style of play. Alcaraz eventually lifted his first ever Wimbledon trophy after coming from a set down to win a five-set thriller on Centre Court.
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“I learned a lot watching those two,” Murray said during a press conference at the Mubadala Citi DC Open. “Obviously as the match went on I thought they both played better and better and you could almost see Alcaraz learning as the match was going on. It could have gone either way to be honest – it was so tight.
“I ended up taking some videos of the guys, just focusing a bit more on one side of the net, looking at their return position and movement between shots. Also looking at times when, particularly Alcaraz, was looking to play aggressive and offensive tennis and how he was going about doing that.”
Djokovic was the overwhelming favourite to win this year’s Wimbledon title after ending the previous four editions of the tournament as champion. And he appeared to be on course to extend his lead at the top of the men’s all-time Grand Slam title standings after winning the first set of the final 6-1. But Alcaraz won a second set tie-break before taking the third 6-1.
Djokovic levelled the match by claiming the fourth set 6-3, but was broken early in the decider. And Alcaraz held his nerve as he won it 6-4 to get his hands on his second Grand Slam trophy following his US Open success last year.
Murray clearly took a big interest in the spectacular affair between the top two players in the world rankings. And as the Scot dissected the encounter, he touched upon the amount of stress both players faced.
“When I was sitting there, I was also looking a little bit at the teams and seeing the players and their reactions between the points,” Murray added. “Both of them, maybe sometimes on the TV it may appear like they’re calm, but you actually see there was a lot of stress and frustration.
“When you just watch on TV they often cut to people in the crowd or the guy that’s just won the point and you don’t see those immediate reactions. Seeing the frustration was there but also how they were responding to that was interesting. It was good – I’m really glad I stayed to watch it.”
