“He’s a bit of a god, I’m not going to lie,” 27-year-old Australian Nick Kyrgios said after the champion Serbian beat him in the famed centre court at Wimbledon in a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6(3) victory to lift the coveted grass-court title for the fourth time consecutively.
The taciturn Novak Djokovic, who could not play the Australian Open due to his steadfast and very public “anti-vax” stand, displayed a masterclass in fine tennis. With 21 grand slam titles under his belt, “Djoko” who surpassed the all-time great Roger Federer (20) is just behind Rafael Nadal (22) now. With this seventh Wimbledon trophy, Djokovic is just one behind Roger Federer’s record haul of eight trophies.
Nick Kyrgios fought valiantly demonstrating the variety in his shots. He landed a 125 mph second-serve ace and used an underarm serve in his opening service game. Even Djokovic, one of the best returners finds it difficult to break Kyrgios’ serve.
Though Nick Kyrgios fired 30 aces, the 35-year-old champion went about winning without losing focus. He broke Kyrgios’ serve after he was leading 40/0 at 4-4 in the third set. Djokovic displayed not only his ability to counter the opponent’s huge serving but also the efficiency of his own game by firing 15 aces and winning 83 percent (62/75) of points behind his first serve, compared to Kyrgios’ 70 percent (64/91).
Djokovic defeated Jannik Sinner in the quarter-finals Cameron Norrie in the semi-finals before surpassing challange from Soonwoo Kwon, Thanasi Kokkinakis, Miomir Kecmanovic, and Tim van Rijthoven during this tournament.
incidentally, Roger Federer missed the tournament for the first time since the late 1990s. In an occurrence for the first time since 1931, Rafael Nadal gave a walkover to Kyrgios by withdrawing before the semifinals,
“Nick, you’ll be back,” said Djokovic acknowledging the brilliance of the 40th-ranked Australian saying “you showed why you deserve to be one of the best players in the world, particularly on this surface.”
