Djokovic ends Slam drought in a major way
He ends a major drought of more than two seasons
LONDON >> Novak Djokovic was disconsolate and injured when he left Wimbledon a year ago, quitting during his quarterfinal because of a painful right elbow that would need surgery.
Djokovic was so dispirited by his upset exit at the French Open last month that he vowed, in the heat of the moment, to skip the grass-court circuit.
Good thing he didn’t stick to that. Just look at him now, back at his best and Wimbledon’s champion for the fourth time. Djokovic ended a Grand Slam drought that lasted more than two seasons, grabbing a lead in Sunday’s final right away against a weary Kevin Anderson and holding off a late challenge to win 6-2, 6-2, 7-6 (3).
“I had many moments of doubt,” Djokovic said, “and didn’t know really if I could come back to the level to compete.”
Anderson nearly managed to extend the match, five times standing just a point away from forcing a fourth set. Djokovic held steady on each one, then was as superior in the tiebreaker as he was most of the sundrenched afternoon.
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 Pete Sampras’ 14.
But it’s also Djokovic’s first since he completed a career Grand Slam at the 2016 French Open.
During that time, he struggled with the first major injury of his professional career, one that forced him
off the tour for the last half of 2017. He eventually had an operation this February, and as his losses accumulated, his ranking fell out of the top 20 for the first time in more than a decade.
At No. 21, Djokovic is the lowest-ranked Wimbledon titlist since Goran Ivanisevic in 2001.
Under a pale blue sky interrupted by only the occasional white puff of cloud, with the temperature at 86 degrees, Djokovic started so well, and Anderson shakily.
“The first two sets,” acknowledged Anderson, who played college tennis at the University of Illinois, “Novak beat up on me pretty bad.”
That might have been easy to anticipate. 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 and aiming to become the first South African man to win Wimbledon.
Plus, Anderson could be excused for exhaustion. His semifinal was the secondlongest Grand Slam match in history, lasting more than 6½ hours until he edged John Isner 26-24 in the fifth set. That followed another extended fifth set in his 13-11 upset of Federer in the quarterfinals.
“I’m definitely not feeling as fresh now as I was coming into the week,” Anderson said.
It was no wonder that, with all of that time on court,
all of that stress on his racketswinging arm, Anderson was visited by a trainer after Sunday’s opening set to get his right elbow massaged.
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. No need for more, because Anderson gifted him 15 unforced errors in that span.
When Anderson pushed a forehand return into the net to end it, Djokovic exhaled. After they shook hands, Djokovic performed his ritual of bending down to grab a couple of blades of grass and plopping them in his mouth, savoring the triumph.