As Novak Djokovic closed in on a seventh Wimbledon triumph, Nick Kyrgios, not for the first time, glanced up towards the players’ box. “It’s taken two hours and 21 minutes before he’s missed a second serve return,” said the Australian with a mix of exasperation and relief. On a day when Kyrgios’s team increasingly bore the brunt of his frustration, it was probably the politest thing he said to them all afternoon. Yet he had a point.
Of the many extraordinary qualities that Djokovic brings to Centre Court, where he remains unbeaten since 2013 after defeating Kyrgios 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (7-3) to win his fourth consecutive title, none is more remarkable than his return of serve. A huge serve was once the weapon of choice on grass, but Djokovic has rewritten the rules of engagement. He equalled the title haul of his childhood idol Pete Sampras with this victory, and that felt about right. He has shown that an ability to intercept rockets can be every bit as destructive as a knack for firing them.
Having seen off Matteo Berrettini in last year’s final, Djokovic once again thwarted one of the biggest servers in the sport, gradually getting a read on Kyrgios’s delivery until, by the end, he was returning with interest against balls that flew down in excess of 130mph. It was a performance all the more impressive for the fact that, as he revealed afterwards, the excellence of Kyrgios’s serving left him feeling like a bystander at times – not least in the opening set, where he won just five points in five return games.
“Nick has one of the best – if not the best – serves that we have in the game,” said Djokovic. “It’s just so difficult to read his serve, first and second. He puts constant pressure on his opponents when he’s cruising through his service games.
“My return was serving me quite well throughout my career, but it was frustrating at times today, just seeing balls pass by and having to deal with more work on my service games, because he was constantly on the line putting pressure.”
Yet Djokovic’s poker face is second to none. Whatever frustration he was feeling, it did not show. Kyrgios, on the other hand, who had won both his previous meetings with Djokovic, was slowly driven to distraction. As it became ever clearer that not even 30 aces and a first-serve percentage of 73% would be enough, the Australian raged at his support team during changeovers, demanding to know why they had not been more vocal when he had Djokovic at 0-40 as he served for the second set.
Djokovic’s escape from that game was to prove the first of two key moments. The second came when Kyrgios was broken from 40-0 up in the penultimate game of the third, an aberration that caused his mood to darken further. In the next game he stood below the players’ box ranting, his choice of words colourful and well within earshot of the royal box, where the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge sat either side of Prince George, their eight-year-old son. Kyrgios had already received a code violation for an audible obscenity after a spectator distracted him midway through the third set, and was lucky to escape further sanction.
Djokovic, meanwhile, embraced it as a turning point.
“I obviously wanted to play every point, regardless of being 40-0 down,” he said. “I just wanted to practise trying to get his serves back and eventually wait for the opportunity. It was presented, actually. He played maybe a couple of loose points, double fault and deuce, and he started talking to his box. I felt maybe that was the moment where I could break his serve, which happened.
“It was a huge momentum shift, I think, because up to that point we were quite even and then, two sets to one up, obviously things are looking slightly different.”
Kyrgios knew it too, and as the realisation belatedly dawned that the opportunity of a lifetime was slipping through his fingers, his focus returned. By then, it was too late. Neither man faced a break point in the fourth set, but the defending champion had played himself into a rhythm from baseline and looked the stronger of the two going into the tiebreak. So it proved, the Serb seizing control after an early double fault from Kyrgios. He never looked back.
What it will mean for Djokovic’s place in the pantheon remains to be seen. His 21st grand slam title leaves him sandwiched between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal on the all-time list of men’s major winners. He also becomes only the fourth man in history, along with Bjorn Borg, Sampras and Federer, to win four Wimbledon titles in a row. Yet his refusal to take a Covid vaccine means he will be unable to compete at the US Open, while his deportation from Australia in January leaves him unable to apply for a visa for three years. With the French Open the next available port of call, it is likely to be almost a year before he can attempt to make further inroads on the record books..
For Kyrgios, meanwhile, aged 27 and having never previously advanced beyond the quarter-finals of a slam, this was an opportunity years in the making. Had he been able to maintain the flawless level he produced in the opening set, where he served Djokovic off the court and denied him rhythm with the glorious range and unpredictability of his shot-making, Wimbledon might have crowned a champion from outside the traditional big four for the first time in two decades. But as Rafael Nadal once famously said when speaking of Kyrgios, “if” doesn’t exist.
Champions like Djokovic deal in more palpable virtues: steeliness, resolve, the ability to find a way regardless of setbacks or circumstance. This was the third straight match in which Djokovic had conceded the opening set. He opened the contest with a double fault, and hit another two games later to concede the break that effectively handed Kyrgios the set. He had never beaten Kyrgios before, or even broken his serve. Yet he turned it around, as he invariably seems to do, with a calmness that his opponent could only envy.
“He’s just so composed,” said Kyrgios. “Big moments, it just felt like he was never rattled enough. I feel like that’s his greatest strength. He just never looks rattled, he just looks completely within himself the whole time. He didn’t play over-aggressive, even though it felt like he was playing big.
“So hats off to him. That was a hell of a match. I thought I served well and put myself in a position to win, but I just wasn’t able to play those clutch points well at all today.”
Against Djokovic, on Centre Court, few have been able to.