Will Alcaraz Win a Hat-Trick of Wimbledon Titles or Falter at the Final Hurdle?

There have been Kentucky Derby winners that have not looked in as fine fettle as Carlos Alcaraz looks in the run-up to Wimbledon 2025. After beating Jiri Lehecka to win Queen’s for a second time, less than a fortnight after winning his fifth Major by beating Jannik Sinner in an instant classic of a French Open final, the 22-year-old Spaniard looks in the best possible shape and form to become only the fifth man in the Open era (since 1968) to win a hat-trick of Wimbledon titles.

However, history also holds a warning for the young Spaniard, as it is also the case that four other men in the Open era have won successive Wimbledon titles only to falter when they attempted to claim a third title in a row.

Will Alcaraz end up among the Wimbledon threepeaters, confirming his own current dominance on grass, or, like some other greats of grass-court tennis, will he falter at the third hurdle?

Four Men to Claim Wimbledon Hat-Trick (or more)

Björn Borg (Winner of five successive titles: 1976-1980)

When the great Swede Björn Borg was going for his hat-trick of Wimbledon titles in 1978, he faced the same opponent in the final for a second year in succession. That was Jimmy Connors, the American who spent far more time as World No.1 than Borg (268 weeks compared with 109), but could not stop Borg’s dominance in the second half of the 1970s either at Roland Garros or Wimbledon.

The 1977 final went to five sets, with Borg eventually winning 3–6 6–2 6–1 5–7 6–4, but the 1978 final, which enabled Borg to claim a hat-trick of Wimbledon titles, was far more straightforward, with Borg winning relatively easily in straight sets, 6–2 6–2 6–3. Thereafter, it would be another American, John McEnroe, who would prove to be Borg’s greatest rival on grass. Borg won the classic 1980 final, 1–6 7–5 6–3 6–7 (16–18) 8–6, before his run of five Wimbledon titles in a row was finally halted by McEnroe in four sets in 1981.

Pete Sampras (Winner of three successive titles: 1993-1995; and four successive titles: 1996-2000)

Nobody has ever dominated Wimbledon in a single decade like Pete Sampras dominated the tournament in the 1990s. He won a total of seven titles, first achieving a hat-trick of titles between 1993 and 1995, followed by four consecutive titles between 1996 and 2000. In all that time, his only loss came in the 1996 quarterfinal against Dutchman Richard Kraijcek, who served superbly – indeed, in Sampras-like fashion – to beat the American in straight sets and continued in that vein to claim the title.

Sampras claimed his first hat-trick of Wimbledon titles in 1995 with a four-set victory against Boris Becker, 6–7(5–7) 6–2 6–4 6–2. That final effectively pitted probably the greatest Wimbledon men’s champion of the 1980s, Boris Becker, against unquestionably the greatest Wimbledon men’s champion of the 1990s, and the latter triumphed. Becker played well to take Sampras to a tie-break in the first set, which he won, but thereafter Sampras’s metronomic brilliance, which was less spectacular but even more effective than Becker’s “boom-boom” explosiveness, saw him close out the match in four.

Roger Federer (Winner of five successive titles: 2003-2007)

It is sometimes argued that until the full emergence of Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer had a relatively easy run, especially at Wimbledon, because he did not face opponents, even in Major finals, who were of the highest calibre. However, that is to ignore the fact that to win several of his earliest Major titles, Federer had to beat other Major winners, such as Lleyton Hewitt and Andy Roddick. By contrast, to win some of his most recent Major titles, Novak Djokovic has faced opponents in finals who never won a Major, such as Matteo Berrettini and Nick Kyrgios.

To win his third Wimbledon title in a row, Federer had to do what Björn Borg had done nearly thirty years earlier and beat the same opponent in the final for a second year in succession. And just as Borg ultimately saw off Jimmy Connors to claim his hat-trick of Wimbledon titles, so Federer beat Andy Roddick for a second year in succession to claim his own trilogy of grass-court titles. As he had in the 2004 final, which went to four sets, Roddick’s huge serving kept him in contention, but ultimately Federer won in straight sets, 6–2 7–6(7–2) 6–4, to emulate Borg’s hat-trick. And he, too, would go on to win five titles in a row before eventually losing his Wimbledon crown to Rafael Nadal in 2008.

Novak Djokovic (Winner of four successive titles: 2018-2022)

There is a statistical quirk to Novak Djokovic’s run of successive titles at Wimbledon, in that he did not strictly win the title for three years in a row. Of course, that is because of the 2020 COVID pandemic, which meant the cancellation of Wimbledon that year, but on either side of 2020, Djokovic won two “doubles” (in 2018 and 2019, and then again in 2021 and 2022) to claim four consecutive titles.

Because of the Covid cancellation of 2020, when Djokovic lined up in the 2021 final against Matteo Berrettini, some tennis fans might not have realised that he was due to claim a hat-trick of Wimbledon titles, but Djokovic himself, one of the keenest students of tennis history, would surely have known. And he was in no mood to be denied that historic triumph even after Berrettini won the first set on a tie-break. Djokovic responded magnificently to win in four sets, 6–7(4–7) 6–4 6–4 6–3.

Four Men Who Fell Just Short

For all that Alcaraz can be inspired by dreams of emulating Borg, Sampras, Federer, and Djokovic and winning a third Wimbledon title in a row, he should also be aware that since 1968, four other men have won the title twice in succession but failed to complete their hat-trick. And like Alcaraz himself, they are among the greatest tennis players ever, especially on grass.

Rod Laver (Won in 1968 and 1969, lost fourth round in 1970)

Rod Laver’s extraordinary career was, of course, truncated by his ban from the Majors for most of the 1960s, after he had turned professional at the start of the decade. Indeed, it was the fact that Laver, undeniably the greatest male tennis player on the planet, was banned from competing in the sport’s biggest tournaments for so long that was a key reason tennis finally became an entirely professional sport in 1968.

Laver had already won two Wimbledon titles at the start of the 1960s, in 1961 and 1962. Upon his return to SW19 after the ban on professional players was lifted, he promptly won two more, in 1968 and 1969. However, he could not complete a hat-trick of titles in 1970, because he lost to Britain’s Roger Taylor in one of the all-time great Wimbledon upsets. Taylor was the No.16 seed (at a time when there were only 16 seeds), but it was a huge shock when he beat the great Laver in four sets in the fourth round, especially after he had lost the first set.

John Newcombe (Won in 1970 and 1971, banned in 1972)

John Newcombe continued the Aussie dominance at Wimbledon by winning the 1970 and 1971 tournaments, but, like Rod Laver, was unable to achieve a hat-trick of Wimbledon titles. And what must have been particularly disappointing for the famously moustachioed Newcombe was that he did not lose the chance to achieve a Wimbledon hat-trick on court, but before the tournament had even begun.

That was because Newcombe was one of a number of the finest men’s players of the time, including Laver and Arthur Ashe, who were banned from competing at the 1972 Wimbledon Championships because of their involvement with World Championship Tennis (or WCT), a breakaway tennis body that was vigorously opposed, especially at the Majors, by the International Tennis Federation (ICF). That is a reminder that not all of the administrative infighting in tennis ended with the sport going fully professional in 1968.

John McEnroe (Won in 1983 and 1984, lost in quarterfinal in 1985)

John McEnroe reached five successive Wimbledon finals between 1980 and 1985, but despite winning the tournament three times in total, he never won it consecutively for three years. He lost his first and greatest final in 1980 to Björn Borg and also suffered a shock defeat in the 1982 final to Jimmy Connors. However, having won the 1983 and 1984 finals with consummate ease (gaining his revenge on Connors in the 1984 final by inflicting one of the all-time great Major final beatdowns), he was highly fancied to make it three in a row in 1985.

That was until he ran into South Africa’s Kevin Curren in the quarter-final and shockingly lost in straight sets, 6-2 6-2 6-4. Later, it emerged that McEnroe’s first marriage to Tatum O’Neal was already in meltdown, and after all that mid-career turbulence, he never fully recovered. Astonishingly, having reached five finals in a row and won three of them, McEnroe would never again reach a Wimbledon final.

Boris Becker (Won in 1985 and 1996, lost in second round in 1987)

McEnroe’s defeat to Kevin Curren in 1985 was a huge shock, but it still pales into relative insignificance when compared with Boris Becker’s second-round loss to Peter Doohan, a hitherto almost completely unknown Australian, in 1987. Doohan surprisingly won the first set on a tie-break, but when Becker took the second set 6-4, it seemed that the natural order of grass-court tennis had been restored. However, Doohan ran away with the third and fourth sets to claim probably the biggest shock win at Wimbledon in the Open Era.

After losing the match, Becker, who was still only 19, famously said, “Nobody died”, to put his defeat in a tennis match into perspective. In retrospect, however, it is arguable that Boris Becker Mark 1, the 17 and 18-year-old who won a pair of Wimbledon titles with a brand of all-action, all-serving and all-diving tennis that had never been seen before, died, or at least ceased to exist, that day. Becker was never as dominant at SW19 again, going on to win only one more title (in 1989) and losing in four other finals.

Will Alcaraz Complete the Wimbledon Hat-Trick or Fall at the Final Hurdle?

All the signs are that Alcaraz will become only the fifth man in the Open Era to win at least a hat-trick of Wimbledon titles. As he showed at Queen’s, his own form on grass is imperious, whereas the form of his biggest rivals is either poor, in the case of Jannik Sinner (who lost to Alexander Bublik in Halle in his only grass-court match so far this season) or non-existent, in the case of Novak Djokovic (who is yet to play on grass this season).

Consequently, the likelihood is that Alcaraz will make it a full handful of men who have won Wimbledon hat-tricks in the Open Era. Perhaps only injury or a once-in-a-career performance like Roger Taylor against Rod Laver in 1970 or Peter Doohan against Boris Becker in 1987 can stop him.