Wimbledon 2021 | Novak Djokovic beats Matteo Berrettini to win 20th Grand Slam title
Novak Djokovic defeated Matteo Berrettini 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 in the Wimbledon final to win his 20th Grand Slam title on Sunday, leveling Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
1 ranked Djokovic earned his third consecutive championship and sixth overall at the All England Club.
He added that nine titles at the Australian Open, three at the US Open and two at the French Open call for the greatest number of titles won by a man in tennis history to equal his two rivals.
The 34-year-old from Serbia is now the only person since Rod Laver in 1969 to win the first three major tournaments in a season. He could be aiming for a calendar-year Grand Slam – the last time completed by a man when Laver did it 52 years ago – at the US Open, which starts on August 30.
It was Djokovic’s 30th major final – among men, only Federer has played more, 31 – and the first for Italy’s 25-year-old Berrettini, who was seeded No.
It was a big game day in London for the Italians: their national football team faced England in the European Championship final on the night at Wembley Stadium.
With Marija Siak, the first female chair umpire for a men’s final in a tournament that began in 1877, play began on center court as the sun made a rare appearance during the fortnight, the sky was visible among the clouds.
The opening game showed signs of acumen on both sides, but especially Djokovic, whose pair of double faults contributed to a half-dozen combined unforced errors, compared to zero winners for both. He faced a break point but held himself up and remained there and, as is the case with every set, it was Djokovic who took the lead on Berrettini’s quick serve.
Berrettini came in with a tournament-high 101 aces and that’s where his game was made: points from serve-free and quick-strike forehands that earned him the nickname “Hammer”.
Those powerful strokes sent the line judges in the opposite direction to avoid damage to their heads. Djokovic would sometimes cover himself, bending and raising his racket as if it were a shield aimed back at his body.
Not many opponents return at 137 mph and win in the end, but Djokovic did so at least twice. And the big groundstrokes that the 6-foot-5, barrel-chested Berrettini could outrun most other players kept coming back from Djokovic’s racket.
This is what Djokovic does: he forces enemies to work so hard to win every point, let alone one game, one set, one match.
In fact, it could have ended too early: Djokovic took a 4-1 lead in the first set, 4-0 in the second, and 3-1 in the third. But in the first, in particular, he stumbled in ways he rarely does, wasting a set point and breaking on serving for it at 5-3.
In the ensuing tiebreaker, they were tied at 3-all, but Berrettini won three of the next four points with a forehand, closing it with 138 mph.
He fumbled for change and many people throughout the house of about 15,000 rose to celebrate with him.
But if Djokovic isn’t a fighter then nothing – he turned things around in last month’s French Open final by two sets – and he worked his way back into this one, standing on the court with Djokovic on his back basking in the crowd cheers
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