WIMBLEDON, England (AP) — Novak Djokovic was waiting. He waited for Nick Kyrgios to lose focus and get lost. He was waiting to find the right reading of his opponent’s big serves. He waited until his own level rose to the occasion.
Djokovic is not worried about a deficit – in a game, a set, a match. He doesn’t mind solving problems. And at Wimbledon for quite some time now, he has not been defeated.
Djokovic used his consistent brilliance to beat the ace-serving, trick-hitting Kyrgios 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (3) on Sunday for a fourth straight Wimbledon title and seventh overall.
Top seed Djokovic took his grass-court Grand Slam unbeaten run to 28 matches and took his career tally to 21 major trophies, breaking a tie with Roger Federer and just one behind Rafael Nadal’s 22 for the most in the history of men’s tennis.
On the men’s side, only Federer, with eight, has won more Wimbledon titles than Djokovic. In the professional era, only Federer was older (by less than a year) than the 35-year-old Djokovic when he won at the All England Club.
His return on a sun-filled afternoon followed those in the quarter-finals, when Djokovic erased a two-set deficit against No. 10 seed Yannick Sinner, and in the semifinals, when No. 9 Cam Norrie took the first set. In last year’s Wimbledon title match, Djokovic lost the first set. In the 2019 final, he erased two championship points against Federer.
There were two particularly key moments on Sunday that went Djokovic’s way, ones that Kyrgios wouldn’t let go as he started monologuing, yelling at himself or his entourage (which doesn’t include a full-time coach), finding reason to disagree with the chair umpire (and receive a warning for profanity) and throwing a water bottle.
In the second set, with Djokovic serving at 5-3, Kyrgios reached love-40 — three break points. But Kyrgios played some haphazard returns and Djokovic eventually held on. And then, in the third set, with Kyrgios serving at 4-all, 40-love, he again let a seemingly decided game slip away as Djokovic broke there.
Kyrgios, 40, was trying to become the first unseeded men’s champion at Wimbledon since Goran Ivanisevic in 2001. Ivanisevic is now Djokovic’s coach and was in the guest box on Center Court for the match.
Kyrgios is a 27-year-old from Australia who has never made it past the quarter-finals in 29 previous Grand Slam appearances – and last got there seven-and-a-half years ago.
In some ways, he stole the show on Sunday. He tried hitting between his legs. Hit some with your back to the net. Hit serves up to 136 mph and produced 30 aces. Uses an underarm serve, then fakes one later.
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