Sunday, July 15, 2018

2018 WIMBLEDON: Djokovic Wins 13th Major and 4th Wimbledon Over Anderson







As expected, Novak Djokovic of Serbia defeated Kevin Anderson of South Africa in the 2018 Wimbledon final 6-2 6-2 7-6(3) to win his 4th Wimbledon title and 13th career major title.  This year the semifinals outshone the finals on the men's side where all 4 competitors were over 30 years old. 31-year-old Djokovic outlasted and outplayed 32-year old Rafael Nadal to win 10-8 in the fifth set. Kevin Anderson survived an extended 6 1/2 hours on court with John Isner to win 26-24 in the fifth. That might have explained the South African's slow start in the final although he made the 3rd set competitive and had 7(!) opportunities to break serve in that set, all of which were saved by his opponent, including 5 of these which were also set points.

Djokovic's win means that he is now 4th on the all-time major men's singles list, behind Roger Federer (20), Rafael Nadal (17) and  Pete Sampras (14). This is his 4th Wimbledon out of 5 finals: 2016 (l. Murray), 2015 (d. Federer), 2014 (d. Federer) and 2011 (d. Nadal). In fact, for the last 16 years all Wimbledon Men's singles titles have been won by one of the big 4: Federer (8), Djokovic (4), Murray (2) and Nadal (2). He will return to the Top 10 on the men's tour and since he has zero points to defend for the rest of the year he has a very good chance to end the year at #1.

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