Once again, the Duke of Kent presented the shiny gold trophy, the last major official act in his capacity as President of the All England Club. After more than 50 years in honorary office, the Duke is about to step down, and he has seen them all win. From Rod Laver to Björn Borg, from Boris Becker to Pete Sampras, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal to that man from the Serbian mountains who made history on July 11, 2021. With the sixth title in Wimbledon, which he won this Sunday in Wimbledon with a win against the Italian Matteo Berrettini (6: 7, 6: 3, 6: 4, 6: 3), Novak Djokovic jumped on the podium to Federer and Nadal .
When Djokovic celebrated the first of his 20 Grand Slam titles in Australia 13 years and six months ago, there was more than just an inkling of what might become of the story.
After his first appearance in a major final, a few months earlier at the US Open in New York, he had done a lot of work for Roger Federer.
It seems like half a century has passed since then, but at that time Pete Sampras' record was still standing, those 14 Grand Slam titles that have long been considered the measure of all things set in stone.
"That's exactly why I'm here"
Federer was twelve at the time, Rafael Nadal, five years his junior, had caught the first three and it was clear to both of them that a dangerous and self-confident challenger had appeared in the world of tennis. When neither of the two grandees reached the final in Melbourne in January 2008 at the beginning of the new year and Djokovic won the final against the Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the narrative of the change of power was used for the first time.
It took a while, but the closer Djokovic got to the goal of catching up with Federer and Nadal, the less effort he made to conceal the importance of this three-way battle.
When asked two days before the final of the 134th Championships what the 20 and the tie would mean to him, he replied without hesitation: “Everything.
That's exactly why I'm here, that's why I play. "
But the pressure was heavy.
Throughout the tournament, the impression was that, for whatever reason, he was playing half a tone below his capabilities.
However, not in the important moments when he reliably accelerated.
Like the victory in the semifinals against the brilliantly fighting Canadian Denis Shapovalov, about whom he said afterwards that he played two sets better than himself.
How nervous Djokovic was before this final could not be overlooked in the first quarter of an hour in the fully occupied house;
in some moments at the beginning he was barely recognized.
In a historic final for several reasons, not only because of Djokovic's ambitions and the farewell to the Duke - for the first time in a men's final, a woman, Croatian Marija Cicak, sat on the referee's chair.
In the end there is no stopping it
Matteo Berrettini's nervousness was easy to explain. The first big final of his career, on the other hand the dominant player of the present, the whole Italian euphoria of this special day in London - that was easily enough for weak knees and a shaky hand. After winning the semi-final against Hubert Hurkacz from Poland, he said that he hadn't even dared to dream of a Wimbledon final: "That was just too much, even for a dream". An Italian had never played in the final at Wimbledon, the last winner in one of the other three tournaments on the Grand Slam stage, as well as Berrettini from Rome, and Adriano Panatta, winner of the 1976 French Open in Paris.
It took the finalists a good half an hour to get the machinery going, and the audience intervened at the latest when Berrettini became more confident and won the first set in the tiebreaker. Djokovic also looked more like himself, increased the pace at the beginning of set number two, and the longer the game lasted, the more confidently he won the points.
In the end there was no stopping him, and with the third match point he made the last, decisive step to the top floor of his longing. “The last ten years have been an incredible journey that doesn't end here,” Djokovic said later. On his own, he practically took care of the challenger generation. In Melbourne he defeated the Russian Daniil Medvedev, in Paris Stefanos Tsitsipas and now in Wimbledon Matteo Berrettini - let's see who will be available for the US Open in New York in a few weeks.
Djokovic questioned his participation in the Olympic Games after the Wimbledon final, probably also because of the fact that there will be no fans there. While Federer congratulated him on Twitter on his triumph at the lawn tournament (“Wonderful performance, well done”), the Serb said about the major event in Japan: “My plan has always been to go to the Olympic Games. But now I'm a little split. It's fifty-fifty from what I've heard in the past few days. "
But back to the 20 titles and the historic deed.
Now Djokovic is not only in the brightest spotlight next to Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, after winning the third of the four big titles this year, he is the first player in more than 50 years to have the chance of the Grand Slam - winning all four titles within one calendar year.
In 1969, the Australian Rod Laver was the last to have succeeded; in the case of women, we look back to 1988 to Steffi Graf.
And at this point we come full circle to the 85-year-old Duke of Kent.
The first to whom he presented the trophy at the beginning of his tenure as President of the All England Club in 1969 was Rod Laver, with Novak Djokovic the time comes to an end.
A cosmic ending, to say the least.