Carlos Alcaraz beats Novak Djokovic to make history as the youngest male Career Grand Slam champion after sensational Australian Open comeback victory

Against the man who has turned the tennis history book into his personal wishlist, Carlos Alcaraz wrote a chapter of his own in Melbourne.

The 22-year-old Spaniard tore apart Novak Djokovic’s own record bid to win his first Australian Open and become the youngest man ever to complete the set of all four Grand Slams.

Djokovic was out to become the oldest player – man or woman – to win a major and the first – man or woman – to win a 25th. He was also attempting to climb the Everest of modern tennis by being the first to beat both Jannik Sinner and Alcaraz in a Slam.

The 38-year-old played a sublime opening set but ran out of steam, unable to back up that monumental semi-final victory over Sinner, and went down 2-6, 6-2, 6-3, 7-5. 

In the final with the largest age gap since Jimmy Connors faced Ken Rosewall in 1974, the force of youth and the genius of Alcaraz was simply too much and the world No1 adds £2.06million to his warchest and a seventh Grand Slam to his tally. 

For all the scale of the achievements Djokovic was chasing, it was easy to forget the significance of this match for Alcaraz.

He is now one of only nine men in history to have won all four majors and has achieved by the age of 22 what for most has been the pinnacle of their careers – just ask Rory McIlroy.

It took Roger Federer 11 years from competing in his first Grand Slam to completing the set; Djokovic 12 years. Alcaraz has done it in six.

Rafael Nadal took eight years and the great leftie was in attendance here – the fiercest rival of one of these finalists and the idol of the other. 

It is said Melbourne is the city of all four seasons in a single day and – after some sweltering conditions this fortnight – it was distinctly autumnal for the final, at 14°C with wind gusting at up to 40mph. Those slower, less predictable conditions should favour Alcaraz, as it would make it more difficult for Djokovic to play the kind of power-tennis that destabilised Sinner in the semis.

That is what we thought anyway, but a lot of people have thought a lot of things about Djokovic that have been proved wrong. His ball-striking in the first set was flabbergastingly good.

‘No es posible,’ Alcaraz said to his team box in the first set, and while it was difficult to know what he was referring to, it felt impossible for Djokovic to sustain this level – and so it proved.

Djokovic’s serve – so good against Sinner – dipped in the second set and that gave Alcaraz the space to re-centre himself and win a one-sided set of his own.

The roof was then partially closed, a confused Alcaraz seeking an explanation from tournament referee Wayne McKewen. The official reason given was that rain was on its way and they wanted to make sure the roof could be swiftly shut.

That took the wind out of the equation and Djokovic was able to increase his aggression. 

But Alcaraz, who in the past has looked a little unsure of his gameplan against the great Serb, was beginning to crack the code.

In the Sinner semi-final, Djokovic was able to hold his own in a relentless baseline slugfest: Sinner’s main adjustment when his hard, clean hitting isn’t cutting the mustard is to hit it harder and cleaner.

Alcaraz has more strings to his bow: in fact he has a crossbow and sling-shot as well, and if all else fails he can roll out the trebuchet.

Instead of hitting through Djokovic, he went around him. The great tennis geometrician brought out all the angles to drag his opponent out of shape. 

It is never easy to see much evidence of decline in the physicality of Djokovic but his trademark elasticity at full stretch is not quite so evident and so Alcaraz – that smiling torturer – put him on the rack.

He was also happy to go into defence mode, as he did spectacularly in one extraordinary counter-attacking point which drew a thumbs up from the old master.

In the second game of the fourth set Djokovic faced six break points in what felt like a pivotal moment; lose that and surely he was done. 

He held after 12 minutes, restricting himself initially to a wry smile before thinking better of it and launching a massive fist pump towards the Serbian flags in the crowd.

He was geeing up the fans again as he made a push on the Alcaraz serve at 4-4, earning his first break point since the fourth game of the second set. 

But Alcaraz’s superpower in moments like this is his smile: he was grinning away despite the suffocating pressure and that relaxation allows him to soften his hands when a drop shot or deft angle is required. He held with a bellow.

He was geeing up the fans again as he made a push on the Alcaraz serve at 4-4, earning his first break point since the fourth game of the second set. But Alcaraz’s superpower in moments like this is his smile: he was grinning away despite the suffocating pressure and that relaxation allows him to soften his hands when a drop shot or deft angle is required. He held with a bellow.

As Djokovic served to stay in the match at 5-6, Alcaraz won a sublime 24-shot rally on the opening point and pushed on from there. In the moment of victory, the history boy collapsed to the court.

In his 11th Australian Open final, Djokovic tasted defeat for the first time. But in doing what he did against Sinner he has proved his chances cannot be discounted in the other three Slams this year. The odds are he will remain on 24 Grand Slams, a figure we were convinced no one would ever challenge.

And then Carlos Alcaraz came along. Seven down, 17 to go.