Djokovic wins 7th Wimbledon title
MELBOURNE – Novak Djokovic used his steady brilliance to beat the ace-delivering, trick-shot-hitting Nick Kyrgios 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (3) last night for a fourth consecutive Wimbledon championship and seventh overall.
“Every single time, it gets more and more meaningful and special,” the top-seeded Djokovic said. “It always has been, and will be, the most special tournament in my heart. The one that motivated me and inspired me to start playing tennis in a small little mountain resort in Serbia.’’The top-seeded Djokovic ran his unbeaten run at the grass-court Grand Slam tournament to 28 matches and raised his career haul to 21 major trophies, breaking a tie with Roger Federer and moving just one behind Rafael Nadal’s 22 for the most in the history of men’s tennis. mong men, only Federer, with eight, has won more titles at Wimbledon than Djokovic. In the professional era, only Federer was older (by less than a year) than the 35-year-old Djokovic when winning at the All England Club. His comeback on a sun-filled afternoon followed those in the quarterfinals, when Djokovic erased a twoset deficit against No. 10 seed Jannik Sinner, and the semifinals, when No. 9 Cam Norrie grabbed the opening set. In last year’s title match at Wimbledon, Djokovic dropped the opening set. In the 2019 final, he erased two championship points against Federer.
There were two particularly key moments yesterday that went Djokovic’s way, ones that Kyrgios would not let go as he began engaging in running monologues, shouting at himself or his entourage (which does not include a full-time coach), finding reason to disagree with the chair umpire (and earning a warning for cursing) and chucking a water bottle.
Serving
In the second set, with Djokovic serving at 5-3, Kyrgios got to love-40, a trio of break points. But Kyrgios played a couple of casual returns, and Djokovic eventually held.And then, in the third set, with Kyrgios serving at 4-all, 40-love, he again let a seemingly sealed game get away, with Djokovic breaking there.
The 40th-ranked Kyrgios was trying to become the first unseeded men’s champion at Wimbledon since Goran Ivanisevic in 2001. Ivanisevic is now Djokovic’s coach and was in the Centre Court guest box for the match. Kyrgios never had been past the quarterfinals in 29 previous Grand Slam appearances and last made it even that far 7½ years ago.
This was Novak Djokovic’s 44 major
th win after losing the opening set, tying him with Andre Agassi for the most by a man since the Open Era began in 1968.
In some ways, the 27-year-old from Australia stole the show yesterday. He tried shots between his legs. Hit some with his back to the net. Pounded serves at up to 136 mph and produced 30 aces. Used an underarm serve, then faked one later.
Perhaps, in some ways, it would have been fitting for such a unique player to emerge as the champion at such a unique Wimbledon. All players representing Russia or Belarus were banned by the All England Club because of the war in Ukraine; among the men kept out of the field were No. 1-ranked Daniil Medvedev, the reigning US Open champion, and No. 8 Andrey Rublev.