Wimbledon: Djokovic beats Anderson, wins men’s 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? Could he end a Grand Slam drought that lasted more than two years?
All of that fretting seemed misplaced Sunday. 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,” Djokovic said, “but that makes this whole journey even more special for me.
“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, ranking fourth in the history of men’s tennis, trailing only Roger Federer’s 20, Rafael Nadal’s 17 and Pete Sampras’ 14.
It’s also Djokovic’s first since he completed a career Grand Slam at the 2016 French Open.
“It was a long journey,” Djokovic 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.
After the operation in February, Djokovic’s results were mediocre. He realized later he tried to come back too soon.
“I really was impatient,” he said.
In April, he reunited with Marian Vajda, the man who had coached Djokovic for years before Boris Becker and Andre Agassi did.
They built “the new Novak,” as Vajda explained it.
Retooled his serve. Made adjustments to other strokes.
Still, Djokovic was so dispirited by his loss at the French Open last month that he vowed, in the heat of the moment, to skip the grass-court circuit.
Good thing for him that he didn’t stick to that.
Because he fell out of the top 20 for the first time in more than a decade, Djokovic is the lowest-ranked (21st) Wimbledon titlist since unseeded Goran Ivanisevic won as the 125th-ranked player in 2001.
On Sunday, under a pale blue sky interrupted by only the occasional soft white puff of clouds, Djokovic, 31, looked far more like a man who used to be No. 1.
“The first two sets,” Anderson said, “Novak beat up on me pretty bad.”
Anderson could be excused for exhaustion. His semifinal Friday was the second-longest Grand Slam match in history, lasting more than 6½ hours until he edged John Isner 2624 in the fifth set. And that followed another extended fifth set, a 13-11 win over Federer, the eight-time champ, in the quarterfinals.
Anderson also blamed some nerves.
This was, after all, the 22nd Grand Slam final for Djokovic, and the second for Anderson, the runner-up at last year’s U.S. Open.
Anderson was so out of sorts, his strokes so off-themark, that Djokovic gathered eight of the first 10 games even though he conjured up only two winners. Anderson committed 15 unforced errors in that span.
“I didn’t really find my form the way I wanted to,” said Anderson, whose right elbow was massaged by a trainer after the first set. “Of course, my body didn’t feel great.”
It was so lopsided for the first hour-plus that spectators began pulling for Anderson, likely in the hopes of getting more tennis for their tickets, which carried a face value of about $275.
Anderson raised his game late and nearly managed to extend the match, five times standing just a point from forcing a fourth set.
Djokovic held steady on each one, then was as superior in the tiebreaker as he was most of the afternoon.
“You can definitely see the improvements he’s made since coming back from injury,” Anderson said.
By the end, Djokovic’s new serve had saved all seven break points he faced. His groundstrokes were a big reason he made only 13 unforced errors. Anderson had 32.
“My opinion,” Nadal said, Djokovic is “playing at his top level again.”