(SATSports) – Novak Djokovic rewrote history on Sunday when he beat Matteo Berrettini 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 to claim his sixth Wimbledon title, in an entertaining final that lived up to expectations and beyond.
The world number 1 claimed his third grand slam title of the year, following wins in Australia and France to keep his hopes of winning all grand slam titles plus the Olympics singles gold at the end of the season alive. If he does complete this chase for greatness, he will be the first man to do so in one season.
The win also means that the Serbian equaled the men’s record of 20 grand slams, sharing the illustrious record with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
Both players showed signs of nerves in the first games of the match, with Djokovic firing double faults and Berrettini failing to convert a break point, hitting backhands in the net off Novak’s low speed second serves. At 2-1 Novak finally gets going with a break of serve and backs it up with a save of his own.
The Italian did well to keep up with his opponent throughout the set after an out of sorts start. The ‘Hammer’ as he is often called hammered his way back into the set, causing all sorts of problems for Djokovic and breaking back to get it back on serve. In the tie break, he erupted to a 7-4 win to claim a first set that lasted 70 minutes.
A mentally tough Djokovic, seems to produce his best tennis when he’s down in big matches, breaking his opponent’s serve twice and holding to take a quick 4-0 lead in the second. The horrors of the first set haunted Nole when he was serving to take the second, getting broken but making sure there was no déjà vu by getting the job done in the tenth game, one set all.
Another early break by the world’s best player in the third set put him a foot ahead of his opponent who couldn’t find a way to get back in the set, with Nole giving him absolutely no chance to get back in it. Djokovic played a flawless set of tennis, firing just two unforced errors en route to a 6-4 win.
The hopes for a first grand slam title in his first final got even slimmer for Berrettini, who found himself broken once again at 3-3. Despite a big fight from the Italian to stay just within reach, saving 2 match points, it was too huge a mountain for him to stage a comeback against a player of Djokovic’s caliber, who converted his third championship point to win his third Wimbledon title in a row.
Following his win, Novak also acknowledged his greatest rivals in Nadal and Federer, who complete ‘the tennis big 3’, saying they are the two most important players he has faced in his career and stating that he thinks they are the reason why he is where he is (in his career). Among them are 60 grand slam titles in 18 years in what can be termed as the golden era of tennis.
