Novak Djokovic retains Wimbledon Crown

Novak Djokovic denied Roger Federer for the second consecutive year in London, defeating the Swiss in a thrilling final 7-6 6-7 6-4 6-3 on Centre Court to win his third Wimbledon title.

The Serbian overcame a partisan crowd, nerves and proved himself a worthy world number one, which he has now locked up completely for the rest of the season by virtue of his 2000 points defense from last year.

Djokovic is now in the eighth place in the all-time Grand Slam Championship title winners list with his ninth title overall and third Wimbledon crown.

He is now tied at three-all titles, same as his coach, Boris Becker, and is the first man to retain this title since 2007. He is also now 48-3 this season and has captured two of the three grand slam titles so far this year. It wasn’t all plain sailing for the Serbian champion, however, as breaks of serves by the pair saw each holding serve to take the first set to a tiebreak, which Djokovic dominated completely.

The second set also went on serve and was decided with a tiebreak. Djokovic was ahead but a series of errors saw him waste six set points and gifting the set to Federer. The match was tied at 1-all.

The third set saw Djokovic break serve again but a rain delay put the match on hold. On resumption, Federer was more aggressive but Djokovic was impregnably rock solid, winning 94 per cent of first serve. He held on to serve and closed the set out with a love service game.

The pressure started to build for Federer in the fourth set as his unforced errors began to increase, while Djokovic’s shots continued to find the lines. The Serb earned a break for a 3-2 lead and never looked back.

At 5-3, Federer was serving to stay in the match but a handful of errors and a beautiful cross court return from Djokovic that kissed the edge of the lines at 15-40 gave the Serb his third Wimbledon title and ninth Grand Slam title.

Even Federer admitted to Djokovic’s current greatness when giving his runner-up speech, saying that the Serb has been in superb form for the last couple of years. Djokovic is now one slam victory away from repeating his 2011 miracle – winning three of the four calendar slams.

The depth of his groundstrokes, his quickness, impregnable defense and the ability to remain ‘clutch’ on the big points set Djokovic on another plane yesterday.

The two rivals are now tied at 20-20 and Djokovic says he is hoping to improve on their head to head. Djokovic was not favoured by many pundits to be in the finals, talk less of winning the title, based on form. In his fourth round match against Kevin Anderson, he had to climb out of a two sets to love hole dug by the South African, a match that lasted two days, eventually winning in five.

Federer was hoping to become the oldest player to win Wimbledon, a feat achieved by Serena Williams on Saturday, but as usual, Djokovic denied him.

After the match on his way to the net, Djokovic picked up some grass and ate it, saying, “It tasted very, very good this year,” he said, complimenting the groundskeepers. “It’s a little tradition, obviously. As a kid, you envision yourself being in Centre Court, holding the trophy and you dream of doing something crazy if you win. That was one of the things.”