In a joyous Spaniard’s hands, tennis is safe

The young man from Spain is polite. “You go first,” he tells the old man from Serbia in the Wimbledon hallways before they get on court. Then, without malice, he destroys him. Ruthlessness is a kind of respect, don’t you think? You honour champions by holding nothing back.

On Sunday, the young man,

Carlos Alcaraz, humbles the old man, Novak Djokovic, 6-2, 6-2, 7-6 (7-4)

under the open sky. Perhaps the introspective Serb grins inside for a second. The young man is only doing unto him what the old man has done unto the world for years.