Wimbledon 2018: Djokovic ends his comeback with a 13th slam title

From the macro point of view, based on Wikipedia, there was nothing surprising about how the Wimbledon Finals in 2018 unfolded. Novak Djokovic won his fourth All-England crown in two sets, 50 of the last 61 wins won by Djokovic (13), Rafael Nadal (17) or Roger Federer (20).

He has won each of the last seven and 11 of the last 13. They combined to earn 18 in a row at one point and 11 in a row at another. Add to that a few elite tracks from Andy Murray (slam champion three times) and Stan Wawrinka (ditto), and you have the history of men's tennis for the last 15 years.

seems inevitable. It was anything but …

Federer and Nadal had to deal with long periods of drought. They had to face both the injury and Djokovic's turn. Federer has gone nearly five years – between Wimbledon 2012 and the Australian Open 2017 – between titles, while Nadal has beaten a series of 10 slams without even a semifinal

They all two found their rhythm early 2017 and remained healthy. a combination of selective schedules, adjustments to their respective games and, perhaps, luck.

Djokovic, apparently, had to fight both injury and his own brain.

Djokovic never had the offensive game of Federer nor the Nadal couple

But he reached the pinnacle of sport by playing a better defense than Nadal and by getting both his mind and his body in a superhuman form. He went without gluten. He spent time in a CVAC pod. He became the perfect physical specimen for tennis.

The Djokovic era was defined by his six-hour (five-hour, 53-minute) victory over Nadal in the final of the Aussie Open 2012. He lost a set of late and s & rsquo; Is down 4-2 in the fifth, but has won five of the last six games to win the trophy. Each point seemed to last two minutes. None gave an inch. But Djokovic survived the unbearable. It was at the time his seventh consecutive victory over Nadal; After losing 14 of his first 18 games against Nadal, he won 22 out of 31.

At the 2016 French Open, Djokovic reached his peak: the career grand slam. He lost in the finals in 2012 and 2014 (each in four sets for Nadal), and in 2015, he finally managed to pass Nadal to lose in the final against Wawrinka. But after dropping a single set on the way to the final, he spotted a set at Murray and then won the next three

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Djokovic held all four slam titles at the same time – the Nole Slam – and in Paris, he had killed his last personal dragon. And he immediately lost his form.

He lost in the third round at Wimbledon, then fell to Juan Martin del Potro in the first round of the Olympics in August. He went to the US Open Finals with help (three different opponents had to retire / retire), and he dropped a set in two of his three completed victories before falling back to Wawrinka. He lost in the second round of the Aussie Open 2017 and in the quarterfinals of the French. He changed coach twice in about a year

. With his career goals completed, Djokovic had seen his mental state slide. And then his body rebelled.

Long harassed by a problem with his elbow, he had to retire to the quarterfinals of Wimbledon against Thomas Berdych. He missed the rest of the season, and after reaching the fourth round in Australia in January, he had another elbow surgery.

By mid-May 2018, he had played only 11 ATP games, and he had lost six. . But he made the semi-finals of Rome and scared Nadal before succumbing. And he lost only one set by qualifying for the quarterfinals of the Open de France before a surprise defeat against Marco Cecchniato. His game was coming, but the trust was not there yet. At his post-game press conference, he hinted that he was not completely sure to play the turf season.

He ended up playing. Good call.

He reached the final of the Fever-Tree Championship in London before falling in three long sets to Wimbledon's 2017 finalist Marin Cilic. And after taking the week before Wimbledon, he found his groove.

Perhaps the last stage of the Re-Djokovication came in the third round last week, when he faced No. 21 seed Kyle Edmund of Britain. Djokovic has always had a little movie villain in him, sometimes seeming to raise his game when the crowd turns against him. Edmund had beaten him in Madrid a few months earlier, and he took the first set in their Wimbledon match. But from there, Nole devastated the 23-year-old team, sweeping the following three sets 6-3, 6-2, 6-4. He shared the first two sets against Kei Nishikori in the quarterfinals, then won the last two, 6-2 and 6-2. His final kick, his ability to mentally break his opponent, seemed to be back. And in a two-day semi-final against his old rival, he completed his comeback.

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Nadal's match forces Djokovic to remain on the offensive. While Djokovic-Murray's matches may become cautious and almost over-defensive, you must withdraw your regulator against Nadal and stay on your front foot.

With his backhand firmly under control – he was the last shot to put in order and the first one to leave him (overhead set aside) – he equaled Nadal with 73 winners and may have better served than ever, giving 23 aces. He pushed off five breaking points in the last set before converting one of his own, defeating his rival, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6, 3-6, 10-8

. . His opponent, Kevin Anderson, had played the equivalent of about 15 sets in his previous two games – he beat Federer 13-11 in the fifth set in quarterbacks and then survived John Isner 26-24 in fifth in the semifinal. It took the rehearsal for the South African team just two sets 6-2, and Djokovic eliminated the title in a tie-break in the third set.

His reaction was revealing; it was much more stunned than happy. He was not sure if he had had another race in him either.

There were legitimate reasons to wonder if Djokovic could find his fifth equipment. Generating his level of mental and physical synchonization and maintaining it for so many years was almost impossible; to find it still seemed to ask too much

We will see what happens here, if its form continues to turn further into the form of "killing machine", or if it This is the top of this one part of his career arc. But men's tennis has been confronted with new leadership.

While Nadal and Federer looked impressive by accumulating six slams at the end of their career, the generation below (NIshikoris and Milos Raonics) of the world) failed to take the last step to challenge them. The generation below them – Alexander Zverev, Dominic Thiem, and Company – may soon be ready, but it is not there yet. Djokovic and Murray are both injured, so there were not enough challenges.

Djokovic himself is 31 years old and does not solve these problems. But we had a reminder this fortnight that a Big Three for men's tennis is more fun than a Big Two.

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