Novak Djokovic won his 2nd Men’s Wimbledon Singles Championship with a victory in the finals over 7-time champion Roger Federer. Petra Kvitova also won her 2nd Wimbledon on the Ladies side, with a 55-minute thumping of Eugenie Bouchard.
Djokovic, who is 27 years old, lost a match point in the 4th set, and ended up losing the set, but regrouped to finish off the 32 year old Federer from Switzerland 6-7, 6-4, 7-6, 5-7, 6-4. The biggest reason for Djokovic’s victory was second serve percentage. Djokovic was 64% on his second serves, while Federer was only at 44%. It says a lot about Federer that he was able to prolong the match, with such a disparity.
Djokovic has now won 7 Grand Slam tournaments. He also kept Federer from becoming the oldest Wimbledon Champion in the Open Era, and the sole leader in most men’s single titles, which he still shares with Pete Sampras with 7.
With the victory, Djokovic has now regained the #1 world ranking from Rafael Nadal. Nadal was eliminated in the 4th round by 19-year old Nick Kyrgios of Australia. Kyrgios, ranked 144th in the world, was the lowest-ranked player to upset a #1 ranked player in 22 years.
Kvitova of the Czech Republic, who is 24 years old, needed only 55 minutes to finish off Bouchard of Canada in the Ladies Final, with a 6-3, 6-0 victory. Kvitova is the #6 ranked player in the world, and won her first Wimbledon title in 2011, similar to Djokovic. These are her only Grand Slam Tournament wins so far in her career.
The weirdest part of Wimbledon happened in a doubles match involving Serena and Venus Williams against Kristina Barrois and Stephanie Voegele. Serena was attempting to serve, but had trouble bouncing the tennis ball. She eventually did serve, but double-faulted 4 consecutive times. Her state seemed to indicate a balance problem, but after retiring from the match, the explanation was that she was suffering from a “viral illness”. More to come on this situation I’m sure.
Serena Williams, who is 32 years old, has won 4 Ladies Single Wimbledon Championships, and is the top ranked player in the world. However, she lost in the 3rd round to 25th ranked Alize Cornet of France in singles competition. The Williams sisters have won 5 Ladies Doubles Championships at Wimbledon.
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Sports With Frank Thomas