Novak Djokovic shrugged off running commentary and temperamental outbursts from volatile Nick Kyrgios to post a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6(3) win on Sunday, claiming seventh Wimbledon title.
Djokovic, winner of the last three Wimbledon editions, joined Roger Federer, Bjorn Borg and Pete Sampas as the only men to have lifted the trophy here four years in succession.
The 35-year-old whose ranking will ironically drop from third to seventh despite his victory due to this year’s lack of Wimbledon ranking points, managed to hold his nerve and find his game while skilfully dealing with emotional outbursts from surprise packet Kyrgios.
The Serb now stands second in the all-time winner’s list, with 21 Grand Slam titles, one behind Rafael Nadal and one ahead of Roger Federer. he has won his last 28 matches at the All England Club.
Djokovic has now lifted seven Wimbledon titles and is undefeated on Centre Court since going out to Andy Murray here in 2013.
“I’m lost for words as to what this tournament and trophy means to me, my team and my family,” the winner said.
“It’s always been the most special tournament in my heart and it’s motivated me and inspired me to play tennis when I was a child in a small mountain resort in Serbia and I saw Pete (Sampras) win his first Wimbledon in 1992.”
Djokovic added: “My first image of tennis was grass,” he said after his go-to trophy move of laying on the hallowed turf and plucking a blade or two to nibble.
“I’m very blessed to be standing here with the trophy on the most special court in the world.”
While Djokovic was all smiles, it took a lot to wipe the frown from the face of Kyrgios, who denied Wimbledon’s all-white tradition again by donning his red NBA baseball cap the moment he got to his bench and wearing the offending garment through the trophy presentation made by Kate, Duchess of Cambridge.
“He’s a bit of a god,” Kyrgios said of Djokovic, with whom has had a running social media war for many months. But the online hostilities have died down recently, with a self-proclaimed “bromance” now forming.
“I played well but congrats to Novak and his team,” the 40th-ranked Australian said. “It’s been an amazing couple of weeks for me personally.”
He added: “I’m so tired, I’ve played so much tennis.I need a well-earned vacation.
“I’m happy with this result, it’s the best of my career – maybe I’ll be back here, but I’m not sure.”
Kyrgios won the opening set but then had to deal with his personal demons as he dropped the second and third as Djokovic began to squeeze.
The Aussie noted as a nonconformist carried on a running conversation – more like a monologue – as he railed against his player box as the match slipped from his grasp.
He also challenged the chair umpire frequently, ran out of linecall challenges, complained to the chair about a “drunk” woman spectator whom he wanted ejected, tossed a banana skin into the air to be retrieved and binned by a ballgirl and drew a warning for one of his frequent f-bomb obscenities.
Djokovic remained stoic throughout as he methodically worked his way through a comeback at his 32nd Grand Slam final.
“Nick will be back,” Djokovic said. “It’s tough to find consolation words after a tough loss like this.
“You deserve to be one of the best in the world on this surface.”
Djokovci took a strategic toilet break after the third set, leaving Kyrgios to ponder what was going wrong for nearly 10 minutes.
The Australian started the fourth with a hold which drew racquet applause from Djokovic before the Serb answered with a love game for 1-all
The set stayed level out to a tiebreaker, with Djokovic running away in the decider 5-1.
A Kyrgios forehand long yielded five match points for Djokovic. Two were saved before the top seed claimed victory as Kyrgios hit the net with a backhand after three hours.
