Novak Djokovic Officially Passes The Baton To Carlos Alcaraz

While most of you were likely sleeping early Sunday morning, a tennis match with historical implications was taking place on the far side of the world.

On one side, Novak Djokovic was gunning for his 25th Grand Slam title, a tally that would likely never be beaten in modern tennis.

On the other stood Carlos Alcaraz, a 22-year-old wunderkind vying to become the youngest man in the history of the sport to complete the Career Grand Slam (winning all four major tennis tournaments in a career).

To his credit, the match went exactly how my friend and coworker, Dan Zaksheske, told me it would, with Djokovic taking the first set 6-2 before Alcaraz's youth and freshness took over, finishing this finale off in four sets.

I'm as big of a Djokovic Stan as there is, but I think this win by Alcaraz might officially signal a passing of the torch from Novak to Carlos.

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I was holding out hope that maybe the Djoker had one more run of magic left in him after his sensational win over Jannik Sinner, but even on his unofficial home court in Melbourne – a place where he won 10 of his record 24 Grand Slams – he couldn't take down the new guard.

And so, it is with a heavy heart that I now have to admit that Novak Djokovic has passed the torch to Carlos Alcaraz as the next GOAT.

To be fair, I'm not sure if any player in the men's game will ever surpass Djokovic's 24 Grand Slam titles, but if anyone can do it, it's probably Alcaraz.

The sensational Spaniard just won his seventh Grand Slam at the ripe age of 22 years old and is showing no signs of slowing down.

For reference, Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, and Roger Federer had seven Grand Slam titles combined at 22 years old.

What I'm trying to say is that the tennis world should welcome the new GOAT of this era, because he isn't going anywhere anytime soon.