THE Centre Court grass has become Novak Djokovic’s customary celebration snack. But it has never tasted as sweet as it did yesterday. Three years after his last helping, a period where the Serb wondered if he would ever sample it again, the 31-year-old afforded himself a second bite of the most famous turf in world sport after he ate into Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal’s advantage in terms of Grand Slam wins. This 6-2, 6-2, 7-6 (3) victory over Kevin Anderson of South Africa moves him onto 13 major titles, to Nadal’s 17 and Federer’s 20 and indicates that he still has a hunger for further glory.
This year’s Wimbledon will be remembered for long, unpredictable matches but for the second successive year it reached a short and predictable conclusion. Twelve months after Marin Cilic was beaten by his blisters, ten hours of tennis in the last two rounds finally caught up on Anderson. Whatever hopes the giant Anderson had of shocking Djokovic disappeared in a sluggish start from the 6ft 10in South African, who required treatment from the early stages on the elbow of his serving arm. It took just over two hours for the Serb to cut him down to size.
The only surprise yesterday was the Centre Court finally falling in love with this formidable 31-year-old from Serbia. Or to be more specific, his young son Stefan. Unable to watch from the players box as he is still aged under five, the youngster was whisked out after championship point and brought out a vulnerability in the Serb that is rarely seen. It was unusual to see this pantomime villain melting people’s hearts. Even at points in the third set yesterday, as Anderson belatedly managed to trouble him, Djokovic was putting his fingers to his lips to shush the crowd and encouraging the umpire to tell Anderson’s players’ box to “shut the f*** up”.
Any rancour was forgotten in the afterglow of victory – a triumph predicted by none other than Scotland’s Andy Murray this week. “It feels amazing because for the first time in my life I have someone screaming ‘daddy, daddy’,” said Djokovic. “That little guy there. I can’t be happier with him being there, and my wife and my whole team. He was by far in a way the best sparring partner I have had in the last couple of weeks.”
The first-ever men’s singles final between two thirty-somethings, Anderson hoped to land a few more blows than this. He did at least have the benefit of an extra day’s rest in his bid to become the first South African to win this title. But the 10 hours 50 minutes he had spent on court in the last two rounds alone was more playing time than that experienced out in Russia before yesterday by Luka Modric, the Croat who has played more minutes than anyone at the World Cup.
The form guide too didn’t offer much in the way of solace for the giant South African either. While the last meeting between these two at Wimbledon was a memorable five-setter which Djokovic won from two sets down back in 2015, only once, ten years ago, had he got the upper hand. A somewhat reluctant volleyer who knew Djokovic would defend and counter punch against him all day long, the only winning game plan was a huge serving day which would allow him to win his own service games, and being able to keep the Serb back long enough with his ground strokes to time a charge to the net. But that self-belief – so unshakeable against Federer – seemed non-existent here.
The serve, which had generated 50 aces against John Isner, managed just 12 against the superior returning skills of Djokovic, throwing in five double faults for good measure. When one of them arrived in the opening game, to groans from the crowd, he was already on a hiding to nothing.
It wasn’t until the Serb was serving out for the second set that the South African carved out his break point. Even then, it only pushed his opponent to raise his level. Six further break points followed in the final set, five of them set points too, but Djokovic served first serves and won them all. His two-year wait for a Grand Slam title was over with one last forehand mistake on his second championship point in the tie-break. It seems unlikely he will wait so long for the next one.
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