Carlos Alcaraz arrived at the champions’ dinner after 11:00 p.m. in London. The place, a warehouse located in Wimbledon Park, near the All England Club, converted into a nightclub. There were the best of the best of British tennis and the winners of all the titles this year at Wimbledon, led by the new king of tennis who was accompanied by his family and his closest people.
Alcaraz entered the room before midnight and was the last guest to arrive. Nothing to reproach him for. After the final with Novak Djokovic, the man from Murcia had to go through the trophy ceremony, receive the congratulations from the Princes of Wales, pick up the tour of the club from the president, Ian Hewitt, speak with King Felipe VI and attend to the media.
By the time dinner was supposed to start, at 8:30 in London, Alcaraz had not yet gone through a press conference. Much less change. One by one, all his family members and team members entered the Central Court locker room to dress in suits offered by the organization. While they waited for Carlos, they took the opportunity to take photos next to the pictures of the winners that decorate the dressing room and that still did not have the name of this year’s champions.
Juan Carlos Ferrero received calls, Carlos Sr., congratulations, and the brothers met planning the night. Alcaraz would be the last to join and deck himself out in his Louis Vuitton suit, one of his most recent sponsors. Curiously, the family arrived at dinner more than an hour before the honoree, who continued to attend to commitments and, upon his arrival at the restaurant, received protocol instructions to know what to do.
They handed him the champion’s cup, which moments before had been displayed next to Marketa Vondrousova’s Venus plate for the guests to take pictures of, and with it in his hands he saw in the distance how a video was projected on the giant screens with the best moments of his tournament. In the instant of victory, she broke into a smile.
Later, he walked up to his table and headed towards her in a champion walk in which some “handsome, handsome” was heard from the crowd. She set the trophy on a dais and sat down to enjoy a quick dinner. Unlike other occasions, due to the tightness of the program, there was no dance with Vondrousova.
The evening, already with Alcaraz in his chair, began with Hewitt giving a thank you speech, in which he highlighted Roger Federer’s visit to the tournament and Alcaraz’s victory in the semifinals against Medvedev, and continued with the champions on the podium, microphone in hand.
There, Vondrousova admitted that she has already decided on the tattoo that will be done with her coach for the victory at Wimbledon: a strawberry, and Alcaraz spoke again about her victory.
“It was crazy,” said the Spaniard to the laughter of the public. “Coming back from 6-1 against Novak is something you can’t believe. It makes it more special to win a legend of our sport,” added Alcaraz, who also detailed his next plans.
“Tomorrow I have work, but I fly to Murcia at night. I’ll be at home, I’ll take a vacation, a few days off that are necessary, and I’ll go back to Murcia to feel like a normal boy again.”
In his speech there was also a reminder for his parents, Carlos Y Virginia: “Without them I would not be here”, and for Juan Carlos Ferrero, who cried when he hugged him in the box: “He is my second father, thanks to him I am the person and the player that I am”.
In the brief chat, the Murcian dissected some more detail of his conversation with King Felipe VI. “Almost”, he said when asked if they are already friends. “The truth is that it’s incredible that he’s here. I was able to talk a bit with him and the truth is that I was more nervous with him than in the final.”
With no time for much else, Alcaraz received the replica of the trophy that he will take home, but it was not taken by Carlos Alcaraz, but by Jaime Alcaraz, his ten-year-old brother who was given the box that the organization girl gave him. The replica.
While Alcaraz rushed his last seconds at the party, all the attendees lined up to take a picture with him. From the doubles champion Neal Skupski to the wheelchair winner, Tokito Oda, passing through other former champions, children of players. And the list went on…
The evening was fast, but intense, and served for Alcaraz to demonstrate once again how attentive he is. Despite being urged to leave, he did not leave anyone without his photo and left with a champion smile. Wimbledon champion.
