Novak Djokovic: Reflections On Becoming a Seven-Time Wimbledon Champion

As Novak Djokovic won his fourth straight Wimbledon Championships gentlemen’s singles title and seventh crown overall, which leveled him with his boyhood idol Pete Sampras, one quality among many stood out. He remained quietly focused – not to mention calm and cool – throughout the three-hour and one-minute final that took place on a sun-drenched, sold-out Centre Court Sunday afternoon. It was in stark contrast to his opponent, the chuntering Nick Kyrgios, who repeatedly lost his cool. You really didn’t expect anything else from the mercurial one, did you?

Yet, one can only wonder what if Kyrgios had kept his mouth quiet instead of incessantly chattering to himself, shouting at his entourage in his box, or at the tennis gods above – often using profanity-laced language not suitable for the ears of young eight-year-old Prince George of Cambridge, who was seated in the first row of the Royal Box in between his dad and mum, Their Royal Highnesses the Duke of Cambridge and Duchess of Cambridge. The Royal Box was also filled with plenty of tennis royalty, too. Among the notables were Hall of Famers Rod Laver, John Newcombe, Stan Smith, Chris Evert and Jan Kodes – all of them past Wimbledon champions from bygone years, back when decorum mattered. 

As it happened, Djokovic won the final, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (3), for his 21st Grand Slam singles title, which moved him one ahead of Roger Federer and placed him one behind Rafael Nadal. It was a fitting way for the Serbian great to celebrate his eighth wedding anniversary with his wife, Jelena. His two young children, Stefan, 7, and Tara, 4, have been in tow throughout the Wimbledon fortnight, too. Nothing like keeping it all in the family, right?

Djokovic managed to shut out the temper tantrums and overcame all of the obstacles Kyrgios could toss at him – including the booming 130 mile-per-hour first serves that produced 30 aces and helped contribute toward the 62 winners the Aussie hit. He also took advantage of the 33 unforced errors made by Kyrgios. Meanwhile, Djokovic, whose head was in the right place, put together a steady, steely and, at times, brilliant shotmaking performance that resulted in 15 aces and 46 winners. His serve was broken just once. He outpointed Kyrgios 132-112.

After securing victory in his 32nd career Grand Slam final – compared to just one final for Kyrgios – Djokovic, as has been his custom after winning Wimbledon on six previous occasions, pulled up a few blades of Centre Court grass to munch on. Djokovic’s winning streak on grass had extended to 28 matches, a streak that began in 2018.

At least, to his credit afterward, Kyrgios showed he could be polite. He shared a good laugh with Djokovic as the competitors walked off the court and was courteous and gracious in accepting his runner-up plate from the Duchess of Cambridge, who is the All England patron.

“He’s a bit of a god, I’m not going to lie,” Kyrgios said during his on-court interview with the BBC’s Sue Barker during the trophy ceremony. Kyrgios also made a point of thanking the ball kids, who put up with his antics over the past two weeks. 

When the volatile and acrobatic Kyrgios, 27, was asked if he would return to the All England Club, he laughed at the thought and quipped: “Absolutely not. I’m set for life. Myself, my team, I think we’re all exhausted. We’ve played so much tennis. I definitely need a well-earned vacation after this. … Maybe, one day I’ll be here again, but I don’t know about that.”

Meanwhile, Djokovic, a member of the All England Club since winning his first Wimbledon title in 2011, definitely will be back. It’s like a home away from home for him. He also suggested that Kyrgios will be back, too. Say what you will, Kyrgios is good for box office and TV ratings.

“Nick, you’ll be back,” he said. “I know it’s tough to find consolation words after a tough loss like this, but you sowed why you deserve to be one of the world’s best, particularly on this surface.”

Djokovic added: “I never thought I was going to say so many nice things about you, considering the relationship. … It’s officially a bromance. Hopefully, this is the start of a wonderful relationship off the court as well.”

During his on-court remarks after lifting the Wimbledon champion’s trophy for the seventh time, the 35-year-old Djokovic got serious for a moment. “I lost words for what this tournament, what this trophy means to me, my family, my team,” he said. “It was the one that motivated me to play tennis. Then, he added: “It’s also a relief as well, considering what I’ve been through of course this year. It adds more value and more significance and more emotions, of course.”

A postscript

Novak Djokovic remains unvaccinated and, as such, he goes off to an uncertain future with the US Open looming next month. It’s likely he won’t get to play in the year’s final Grand Slam. That’s because the United States has a vaccine mandate that likely won’t be relaxed just for him. Currently, noncitizen nonresident internationals, such as Djokovic, aren’ allowed to enter the country if they aren’t vaccinated against COVID-19.

During his post-match news conference Sunday, Djokovic stood adamant about his decision not to get the required shots to be able to travel to the U.S. “Yeah, I mean, I’m not vaccinated and I’m not planning to get vaccinated,” he said. “So the only good news I can have is them removing the mandated green vaccine card – or whatever you call it – to enter [the] United States, or exemption. 

“I don’t know. I don’t think exemption is realistically possible. If that is a possibility, I don’t know what exemption would be about. I don’t know. I don’t have much answer there. I think it’s just whether or not they remove this in time for me to get to U.S.A.”

At the same time, despite Djokovic’s Wimbledon triumph, he fell four slots in the new ATP rankings, released Monday, from No. 3 to No. 7. That’s because the ATP Tour didn’t award rankings points for this year’s Wimbledon because of the tournament’s ban on Russian and Belarusian players, which Wimbledon enacted because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine earlier this year.

Looking ahead, Djokovic’s future remains uncertain, he’s still unbeatable on Wimbledon’s famed Centre Court.

Photo credits: Courtesy Wimbledon video. 

A version of this blog previously appeared in Tennis-TourTalk.com.

Greatest match ever in the greatest place

It took 11 hours, 5 minutes and 183 games ~ spread over three days ~ before the longest match in tennis history finally ended at 4:48 p.m. local time on Thursday afternoon with American John Isner prevailing 70-68 in the fifth set over Nicolas Mahut of France in a first-round gentlemen's singles match at Wimbledon.

If the final tally looked impossible or, worse, a misprint in your morning newspaper, make no mistake.  The final result on the Court No. 18 scoreboard, which had to be reprogrammed after Wednesday evening's suspension of play, was full of a lot of crooked numbers ~ and most of them were in Isner's favor: 6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 7-6, 70-68.

The headline in Friday's New York Times hailed the epic match:

Game, Set, and 3 Days Later, Match.

It drew a hardy mention from a World Cup announcer during the broadcast of the Italy-Slovakia match on ESPN when the score of the last set was 67-all.

By Day 3, the Isner-Mahut marathon match had become the talk of the tournament, if not the world, and nearly upstaged the royal visit by Her Majesty The Queen.  It's too bad Queen Elizabeth II didn't make time to stay late and venture over to the quaint Court No. 18 during her first visit to the All England Club in 33 years. If she had, she could have rubbed shoulders with a few hundred enthusiastic spectators, including John McEnroe and Woody Allen.  Imagine, a tea time threesome with the queen, McEnroe and Allen.  Instead, the queen, 84, preferred to call it a day after spending a couple of hours in the Royal Box at Centre Court watching Andy Murray, Britain's best and only hope for winning a singles title this year, who put on a pretty good show for everyone in defeating Jarkko Nieminen of Finland in conventional straight sets, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2.

In fairness, the queen's itinerary was scripted to the minute, which earlier included a brief walk about the hallowed grounds, lunch with tennis royalty, including Roger Federer and Martina Navratilova (the main course: orange and honey marinated chicken on fruity couscous with roasted vegetables), and an appearance in the front row of the Royal Box surrounded by her cousin, the Duke of Kent, and Virginia Wade, the last Englishwoman to win Wimbledon in 1977 ~ coincidentally, the last time the queen paid a visit to Wimbledon, during her Silver Jubilee year.

For the record, Queen Elizabeth II arrived on schedule at Centre Court at 1 p.m. sharp, attired in a light blue dress and matching hat and sunglasses.  The crowd gave the queen a standing ovation and she acknowledged the crowd with a polite, royal wave with her white-gloved left hand.  At least, that's how I remember seeing it on TV, although I admit I was still half-asleep at 5 a.m. Pacific Time. The British newspaper, The Guardian, described Her Majesty's arrival in a slightly more colorful manner:  "The crowd whooped and cheered as she materialised, resplendent in a turquoise gown with matching inverted flower-pot hat."

No worries, the important matter is this: By all accounts, it appeared that Queen Elizabeth II enjoyed a pretty good time during her visit to SW19 on Thursday, and in return, the All England Club put on a jolly good show for the royals  ~ and, the tradition of bowing on Centre Court, albeit for one match, made a nice comeback.

A postscript: OK, I'll admit it.  Like many tennis fans who collectively held their breath, I became hooked by the Isner-Mahut marathon of all matches, starting from twentysomething-all on Wednesday.  I invested about four hours of my time on Wednesday, watching and tracking the tennis match on TV, which followed the euphoria of the Landon Donovan goal that gave the U.S. a stunning 1-0 victory over Algeria in the World Cup.  So, coming back to watch the conclusion of the tennis match on Thursday morning was a given.

Even though I didn't favor one player over the other, I hoped the match would have a happy ending.  Finally, it did after Isner held serve to go ahead 69-68 and, then, for the first time in the decisive fifth set, broke Mahut.  In the end, both Isner and Mahut were winners, and they will be forever linked by this match.  Even, if only one player would emerge as the victor and earn the right to play on in the second round.

After being embraced at the net by Isner, his opponent for three days, Mahut put things in proper perspective. "We played the greatest match ever in the greatest place to play tennis."