Carlos Alcaraz is no Boris Becker and this is more significant than Federer beating Sampras

• 17-Jul-2023
• 305

There’s this charming Michael Jordan story from the time when the ageing Magic Johnson was still the unquestionable GOAT of basketball. It is from the pre-1992 Olympics camp, where the Dream Team was split into two for a practice game. What was to be a routine morning workout turned out to be a clash of big egos where no one gave an inch. Jordan was on roll that day, his electric play reminded Johnson that his Magic fading, he wasn’t quite unbeatable. After the game, as Johnson sat next to the other legend of his generation Larry Bird drying sweat, Jordan swaggered towards the greats. “There’s a new sheriff in the town,” he said with a sneaky smile. With a throaty laugh, Johnson told Bird: “He isn’t lying”. It is said to be basketball’s epic moment of power shift, like it was at Wimbledon on Sunday when Carlos Alcaraz beat world tennis’s unrivaled GOAT, the 23-Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic. The 20-year-old from the Spanish village of El Palmar, known for its tall palm trees, made a grand announcement from the famous grass court that a new sheriff was in town. And he wasn’t lying.