A WINNING MACHINE

Perfect timing, flawless precision and ice in his veins... Djokovic is proving to be unbeatable on the grass at Wimbledon

NOVAK DJOKOVIC does a mean Grand Slam winner’s speech and no wonder.

Not only has his brilliance compelled him to make 21 of them, he does everything with precision, everything with perfect timing, nothing is left to chance.

In this arena, he does not beat opponents, he dismantles them, slicing their games apart with a scalpel for a tennis racket.

This is one of the most remarkable runs in sport. Four consecutive Wimbledon titles and unbeaten on All England grass since retiring injured from a quarter-final against Tomas Berdych in 2017.

And even though he lost the first set to Nick Kyrgios in a furnace, there was an air of inevitability about his seventh triumph at these Championships once he had broken the Australian’s serve and taken the second set.

It is something of a cliche but, in temperatures of 30 degrees-plus, Djokovic, 35, was the coolest person in the place.

When he chatted to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge soon after collecting a familiar trophy, it was hard to tell which one of them had just played four sets of elite tennis.

Considering he is closer to 40 than 30, his movement and his fitness are remarkable.

And that is why Djokovic will surely match and then surpass Rafa Nadal’s record tally of 22 Grand Slam titles.

If the United States relax their Covid rules and let him in for the US Open – extremely unlikely if not impossible – he would probably draw level in New York next month. He is a machine. This 4-6 6-3 6-4 7-6 win had a stunning familiarity about it.

Lose a tight first set but, essentially, use that loss as a sighter, an educational few games that tell him all he needs to know about his opponent.

And even if Kyrgios had not gone down that familiar path of tiresome antics, of abysmal behaviour, of boorish nonsense, of brattish abuse towards his entourage in the stands, the outcome would have been exactly the same.

The Djokovic return of serve became more accomplished and his own serve more efficient.

The showboating came from Kyrgios – the tweeners, the underarm delivery, the high-velocity second serve – but the brutal efficiency came from Djokovic, who is not unaccustomed to giving up the first set of a big match.

Sure enough, he duly settled into a clinical groove as Kyrgios duly settled into a series of tantrums, one triggered by a talkative spectator.

Djokovic just ignored him, although he might, at some time, reflect on how Kyrgios’s cursing actually made the Serb – a divisive character, to say the least – look like the world’s nicest tennis player.

He was almost serene, needing single breaks to win the second and third sets.

In the fourth set, Kyrgios did appear to try and make an

effort to focus all his energy on duelling with Djokovic – rather than with punters and officials – but the champion was just preparing for the decisive moments.

And, impervious to any pressure that comes with closing out a Grand Slam final, he triumphed in the tie-break for his seventh Wimbledon title, 11 years after he won his first.

It was an utterly professional performance from a player who might, indeed, divide opinion, but who is on a remarkable mission to prove himself the greatest Grand Slam player of all time.

And few who witnessed this triumph would back against him doing exactly that.