Era-defining evening of sport: Stage set for three mega finals

There’s still about a couple of weeks to go for the Olympics, but a sporting avalanche awaits on an almighty Sunday of football and tennis, featuring three tournaments across three countries and three different time zones — starting at 6.30pm on Sunday, stretching into early Monday morning.

First on the cards - tennis: The Wimbledon men’s singles final, where defending champion Carlos Alcaraz will take on seven-time champion Novak Djokovic on the London greens.

Swiftly, the action will shift from the serene All England Club to the raucous Olympiastadion in Berlin, when Spain and England walk out for the battle of Europe at 12.30am. And if that isn’t enough, the after-party is reserved for 5.30am on Monday when Lionel Messi’s Argentina take on Colombia in the final of Copa America in Florida.

There’s also a more low-key appetiser before the three high-profile finals – the fifth and final T20I between India and Zimbabwe at 4.30pm.

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Sporting landslides of such kind on a single day are rare, although not unprecedented. Five years ago on this exact same date, the Super Sunday of 2019 took shape, an evening of epic proportions, when the Wimbledon final and the ICC Cricket World Cup final coalesced, sprinkled with Formula One’s British Grand Prix.

That evening delivered on every promise – the World Cup final between England and New Zealand at Lord’s went into a dramatic super over, or when the Novak Djokovic-Roger Federer game spilled into a tense, but epic fifth set across at SW19.

The Wimbledon-Euro-Copa trinity came together again in July 2021.

This time, though, there’s a common theme at play across these tennis and football spectacles – of a generational battle; of generational talents at either end of the spectrum hoping to take their team to the summit; of clash of styles between sublime Spain’s all-win run and edgy England’s gritty show.

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Alcaraz versus Djokovic has been the standout tennis rivalry since the start of last year. The 21-year-old Spaniard got his first big win over the Serb at last year’s Wimbledon final, and trust the 37-year-old to be greedy to have his say again (he has beaten Alcaraz in their two meetings since). That he put himself in a position to be there a month after having a knee surgery is just Djokovic doing Djokovic things. The 24-time Grand Slam champion is also chasing Federer’s record eight men’s singles titles at Wimbledon.

Around 4,000 miles away, also chasing some more glory towards the final chapter of a storied career will be Messi. The same age as Djokovic, the Argentine is back in another major final after leading his country to the FIFA World Cup in December 2022. Should Messi and his men defend their Copa America crown, it will be Argentina’s record 16th triumph.

Lamine Yamal’s career is just about getting started, along with the Messi comparisons. The Spaniard, who turned 17 on Saturday, has been the talk of the football world over the past month, leaving opponents and viewers alike awestruck. Unbeaten Spain becoming champions will be the icing on the cake — and the first of many accolades he appears destined for — to the youngest-ever Euro scorer’s breakthrough tournament.

His fellow Spanish sensation would certainly hope so. Speaking about his tennis final on Sunday, Carlos Alcaraz — rather bravely in London — also brought up football.

“It will be a good day for Spanish people,” Alcaraz said in his on-court interview after the semi-final win on Centre Court. It attracted a few light-hearted boos from the English crowd.

“I didn’t say Spain are going to win,” Alcaraz added, smiling. “I said it will be a fun, fun day.”

That holds true for every sports fan.