Once again Novak Djokovic was pushed to his limits and answered the challenge with another startling performance of the greatest tennis ever played, as he conquered Matteo Berrettini 67 64 64 63.
Djokovic’s sixth Wimbledon title now adds his overall major title count to 20, to equal Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
Berrettini came out firing his heavy artillery and won the first set, once again giving Djokovic fierce resistance as he did in their four set French Open clash. But Djokovic has too many dimensions and too much experience and found the formulas to overcome Berrettini, who, in my opinion, would have beaten any other player today, unfortunately the 25 year old had the bad luck to have to play the greatest tennis champion in history in his first major final.
Djokovic will now set his sights on breaking the all time record at US Open for his 21st career Grand Slam title. Also he will compete at the Olympics in Japan to try to score his first Olympic gold medal.
Djokovic has won all three Grand Slam titles this year and if he can win US Open, he will achieve the first calendar year Grand Slam since Rod Laver accomplished the rare feat in 1969. “The journey isn’t over yet,” smiled Djokovic during his on court interview with Sue Barker.
“I am a better player in all areas,” Djokovic said. “The journey that I’ve been through has been very rewarding for every segment of my game and also my mental strength, the experience, understanding of how to cope with the pressure in the big moments, how to be a clutch player when it matters the most. Just the ability to cope with pressure.”
“The more you play the big matches, the more experience you have. The more experience you have, the more you believe in yourself. The more you win, the more confident you are. It’s all connected. Obviously it’s all coming together.”
“In the last couple of years, for me, age is just a number. I don’t feel that I’m old or anything like that. Obviously things are a bit different, and you have to adjust and adapt to your, so to say, phases you go through in your career. But I feel like I’m probably the most complete that I’ve been as a player right now in my entire career.”
Italy · Matteo Berrettini · Novak Djokovic · Serbia · Wimbledon
