DJOKOVIC DOMINATES
Novak breezes past Anderson in 3 sets for 4th Wimbledon title
LONDON — Novak Djokovic acknowledged that he was worried. His coach was, too.
Could Djokovic ever return to the top of tennis? To the heights he'd already reached? Could he put aside the time lost to a painful right elbow that required surgery and the disappointment of poor-for-him results? Could he end a Grand Slam drought that lasted more than two years?
All of that fretting seemed misplaced Sunday night. Back at his best, Djokovic became Wimbledon's champion for the fourth time, grabbing a lead right away against a weary Kevin Anderson in the final and holding off a late challenge to win 6-2, 6-2, 7-6 (3).
"There were several moments where I was frustrated and questioning whether I can get back (to the) desired level or not. But that makes this whole journey even more special for me," Djokovic said.
"It's easy to talk now and look back at it and be kind of grateful, but I really am grateful to go through this kind of, so to say, mixed emotions, turbulences as well, mentally, moments of doubt and disappointment and frustration, anger."
It is Djokovic's 13th major trophy, the fourth-highest total in the history of men's tennis, trailing only Roger Federer's 20, Rafael Nadal's 17 and his childhood idol Pete SamGrand pras' 14.
But it's also Djokovic's first since he completed a career Slam at the 2016 French Open.
"It was a long journey," the 31-year-old from Serbia said. "I couldn't pick a better place, to be honest, in the tennis world to peak and to make a comeback."
A year ago at the All England Club, Djokovic quit during his quarterfinal because of the elbow, then took the rest of 2017 off.
Because he fell out of the top 20 for the first time in more than a decade, the No. 21 Djokovic is the lowest-ranked Wimbledon titlist since Goran Ivanisevic in 2001.
On Sunday, under a pale blue sky interrupted by only the occasional soft white puff of cloud, Djokovic looked far more like a guy who used to be No. 1.
"The first two sets," said Anderson, who played college tennis at the University of Illinois, "Novak beat up on me pretty bad."
Anderson could be excused for exhaustion. His semifinal was the second-longest Grand Slam match in history, lasting more than 6.5 hours until he edged John Isner 26-24 in the fifth set. And that followed another extended fifth set in his 13-11 upset of eight-time champion Federer in the quarterfinals.
Anderson also blamed some nerves.
This was, after all, the 22nd Grand Slam final for Djokovic, and the second for Anderson.
When Anderson pushed a forehand return into the net to end it, Djokovic exhaled. After they shook hands, Djokovic performed his personal ritual of bending down to grab a couple of blades of grass and plopping them in his mouth, savoring the triumph.
He did the same after his Wimbledon titles in 2011, 2014 and 2015. One key difference on this day was the presence of two special guests: The doctor who performed the elbow surgery and Djokovic's 3-yearold son, Stefan, who was in the stands for the trophy presentation.
Later, they met in a hallway, and Djokovic knelt down to hug his child.
"It feels amazing," Djokovic said, "because for the first time in my life, I have someone screaming 'Daddy! Daddy!'"
As much as Djokovic is known for his body-bending defense and unerring reads on opponents' serves, he's also someone who fills his matches with histrionics and exaggerated reactions.
This day was no different. But when he broke Anderson for the second time in three service games at the outset, Djokovic simply shook a clenched fist while calmly looking at his guest box above the scoreboard. The bright yellow digits on there showed that Djokovic already led 4-1 after all of 18 minutes.
Might as well have declared him the champion, right then and there.