WIMBLEDON, England — The opponents and the details change from year to year, but the ultimate goal remains the same.
With his trademark grit, Novak Djokovic defeated Nick Kyrgios in the men’s final at Wimbledon on Sunday to win his 21st Grand Slam singles title.
Djokovic took control of the match late in the third set, then used his trademark combination of sustained power and relentless discipline to keep Kyrgios at bay to win 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (3), after 3 hours and 1 minute.
The win gave Djokovic his seventh Wimbledon singles title and fourth in a row. He secured the trophy he values more than anyone else with his 28th straight match win at Wimbledon. It was his 32nd Grand Slam final. His record in those finals is now 21-11.
“I’m at a loss for words what this tournament means to me and my family,” he said as he clutched the trophy to his chest.
Kyrgios, playing in his first Grand Slam final, was the better player early on, outplaying Djokovic in every facet of the game. But as he often does, Djokovic eventually figured out the little ways he could get the best out of Kyrgios, an often erratic Australian, for those few crucial points that decide a tennis match as tight as this one.
The biggest of these came in the fourth-set tiebreak when Djokovic, moaning with every shot, fought off rallies and baited Kyrgios into four straight errors to take a 6-1 lead.
On his third match point, Djokovic pushed Kyrgios to the back of the court and saw one final backhand hit the net. He raised his hands and, as he had done many times before, tasted the grass at Center Court in celebration.
“He’s a bit of a god, I’m not going to lie,” Kyrgios said at the trophy ceremony, wearing a red cap rather than the obligatory whites in one final blow against the authorities in a tournament that had felt many of them.
On a warm day and sunny afternoon that felt more like Kyrgios’ home in Canberra than Djokovic’s in Monte Carlo, Center Court had a tense atmosphere. Two future kings, William, Duke of Cambridge, and his eldest son George, sat directly above the court in the front row of the royal box, with Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, the biggest tennis fan and player in the family, on the other side of George.
Early on, Kyrgios did almost everything better than Djokovic. He served harder and more accurately. He mixed spins and speeds and stood tall in the middle of the baseline as Djokovic chased balls left and right and struggled to catch Kyrgios’ drop shots.
Kyrgios opened up his first opening in the fifth game, drawing Djokovic with a cut backhand, then taking it down the line for his initial forehand on a break of Djokovic’s serve. A Djokovic double fault sent him to his bench and five games later he won the first set with an ace, one of 30 he managed on the day, compared to 15 for Djokovic.
But then Djokovic started to do what he does better than anyone else, find the thinnest crack and put his opponent on the defensive no matter what the scoreboard says. The first set was a learning experience for Djokovic.
He found that crack in the fourth game of the second set. With Kyrgios serving at 1-2, the big Australian quickly found himself in trouble with a long forehand. Djokovic then unleashed a flurry of backhands, each one hit a little further down the court than the last, to get three chances to break serve. When Kyrgios’ forehand ticked the net and dribbled, Djokovic was ready to pounce.
Sudden destruction is rare. Instead, the tension builds with each match. Djokovic’s opponent is under pressure with every serve. It’s 30-30, then a pair, then a break point, then another. In the next game, it’s more of the same, and eventually it’s all too much.
As the match progressed, Djokovic moved more fluidly around the court, dancing with the ball, hitting it with every shot and serve and landing it closer and closer to the lines.
After Kyrgios dropped the third set, he punched his court in an attempt to calm his team down. He started playing tennis at 7. It took him 20 years to reach this stage, much longer than most thought, after he stormed the tour as a teenager with his speed, size and talent. Now everything was going in the wrong direction.
To his credit, Kyrgios never caught fire. But no matter how hard he ran or served, or how sexy some of those curling shots of him might have been, the cries of “Come on Nick” that echoed around the 100-year-old ground and through the Henman Hill sauce crowds outside Center Court didn’t they could match Djokovic’s relentlessness.
In the long history of this tournament, there have been finals featuring more famous champions and players far more beloved than Djokovic and Kyrgios, but it is unlikely that there has ever been one that presented a greater contrast in styles as on court , and beyond, in tennis and life.
Djokovic, 35, entered the match second only to Rafael Nadal in Grand Slam singles titles.
Kyrgios, 27, had never reached a Grand Slam semifinal until last week. He has yet to play in one because Nadal withdrew from the tournament with an abdominal tear on the eve of their match.
“I slept terribly last night again,” Kyrgios said.
Djokovic, ranked third, is the best counter-hander, the best racket-lifting returner. He has been playing in collared Lacoste jerseys and chasing tennis immortality with extreme determination since he was a little boy in Serbia.
Kyrgios, ranked 40th, plays basketball jerseys and carries a rare combination of power and hands capable of turning a forehand hit into his groin into a willowy drop volley. But he also proved to be as fragile as any elite player, prone to lashing out at an official, opponent or fan in the most vile way or smashing rackets at any moment. Kyrgios earned an $18,000 fine this tournament for spitting at a fan and using profanity in a third-round match on Sunday.
News broke on Tuesday that Kyrgios is due in court on August 2 to face charges of assaulting an ex-girlfriend. Chiara Passari told police Kyrgios grabbed her during a domestic dispute in December. On the advice of his lawyers, Kyrgios declined to comment on the allegations.
Kyrgios has long had an ambivalent relationship with tennis, playing a few tournaments then disappearing from the tour for months, unable to cope with life constantly on the road.
Until recently, he and Djokovic despised each other, trading insults at press conferences and on social media over Djokovic’s careless approach to the pandemic. Djokovic refused to be vaccinated and held a tennis exhibition in the spring of 2020, during which several top players contracted the coronavirus.
They are now friendlier after Kyrgios expressed support for Djokovic following his detention in Australia in January over his refusal to be vaccinated before traveling to the country for the Australian Open.
During the trophy ceremony on Sunday, after Djokovic complimented Kyrgios on his performance, he joked that he never thought he would have so many nice things to say about his opponent.
Djokovic dropped several sets en route to the final and had to come back from two sets down in his quarter-final. But his fate at this tournament has rarely been in doubt. In the fifth set of that quarterfinal, he reached for a backhand and ended up sprawled on the grass in a Superman pose, a shot that would be shown for decades. He played Superman again on Sunday.
This could be the last Grand Slam event for a while. Unless there is a change in policy or he changes his position on vaccinations, he will not be able to enter the United States to play in the US Open.
US regulations require all foreigners entering the country to be vaccinated against Covid-19. Djokovic said he believed people should be allowed to choose whether to do so without pressure from governments.
Also, having been deported from Australia, Djokovic would have needed a special exemption to return to that country to compete in the Australian Open in January.
That being said, Sunday could be his last chance to win a Grand Slam until next May at the French Open in Paris. He made the most of it. He usually does.
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