Wimbledon Tennis 2023 Men's Final: Carlos Alcaraz vs. Novak Djokovic Predictions

The Wimbledon men's singles final that we all wanted takes place on Sunday inside Centre Court.

Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic will square off for the third time in their careers, and for the first time in a Grand Slam final.

Djokovic is the dominant power of men's tennis. He added to his all-time best 23 major titles with wins at the Australian and French Opens to start the 2023 major calendar.

The second-seeded Serbian has not lost at Wimbledon since 2017 and he owns a 45-match winning streak on Centre Court.

All of those statistics combine for an intimidating resume, but Alcaraz likely will not fear his championship match foe.

Alcaraz played equally as good tennis as Djokovic to reach the title showdown. He beat two of the best players in the field in straight sets over the last two rounds to prove he can master the grass-court surface.

However, this is Djokovic at Wimbledon, where he has a 7-1 record in title matches, and beating him will be a difficult task.

Prediction

Novak Djokovic over Carlos Alcaraz in five sets

Djokovic has played one five-set match in his last eight Grand Slam finals dating back to his 2020 French Open loss to Rafael Nadal.

Djokovic is 6-2 in that span. Both of the defeats came in straight sets, one to Nadal and the other to Daniil Medvedev at the 2021 U.S. Open.

The lone five-set victory came against Stefanos Tsitsipas at the 2021 French Open. Three of his wins in that span were in straight sets and the other two came in four sets.

Djokovic is susceptible to losing a set in a Grand Slam final, and that should be the minimum goal for Alcaraz.

History is on Alcaraz's side when it comes to winning a set against Djokovic in a Wimbledon final. Six of Djokovic's eight Wimbledon championship matches went at least four sets.

Alcaraz proved in his last two matches that he can raise his level against the best competition in the field.

He made No. 6 seed Holger Rune and No. 3 seed Daniil Medvedev look like average players, and he has to show that same level of dominance against Djokovic.

Achieving that will be far more difficult than it was in the last two rounds, but he can gain confidence from the set he took off Djokovic in the French Open semifinals last month.

Alcaraz lost that match, but he does have a victory in the other head-to-head meeting on clay in Madrid last season. The two players have never met on a grass or hard court.

Grass is Djokovic's second-best surface behind the hard court, so he will be tougher to break down than on the clay as a whole.

Djokovic's last six sets on Centre Court against No. 7 seed Andrey Rublev and No. 8 seed Jannik Sinner proved he still has a level that no one else can reach on the grass.

That is what makes the Serbian the favorite to beat the No. 1 seed until Alcaraz finds a way to beat him.

The men's singles final should be incredibly close, but Djokovic has the closing power that few on the ATP Tour possess and that should make the difference on Sunday.