About the match
Just three weeks before turning 34, Roger Federer seems to be running out of time and luck to seal his 18th title in Grand Slam events. His current 17 titles keep Federer at the top of all time as the record holder for Grand Slam titles, but a new opportunity to increase the count slipped away between the strings of Novak Djokovic's racket, who won his third Wimbledon Championship by defeating Federer 7-6 (1), 6-7 (10), 6-4, and 6-3.
The match
The final, the second in All England between Federer and Djokovic, and a re-edition of the 2014 final, was very similar to last year's, which Djokovic won in five sets. From his champion's pride and super class, Federer fought to exhaustion and rescued the second set after canceling up to seven set points favorable to Djokovic. That set and that effort extended to 66 minutes. At the beginning of the third set, the two-hour mark of play was reached... just when Djokovic obtained a killer break on Federer's serve: Roger's downhill journey towards fatigue entered a downward spiral with no solution to the elastic fitness armor presented by Djokovic, who perfectly knows that his body is his business... and takes care of it to the fullest...
Stats
In the two hours and 55 minutes of the match, Djokovic hit 13 aces (Federer, 14), and his return reduced to 49% the number of points won by Federer with second serves. Djokovic hit 46 winners, 12 fewer than Federer, but also made 19 unforced errors fewer than the Swiss player: 16/35. Novak broke Federer's serve four times (4/10), and Roger was only able to force one break under Djokovic's serve, which wasn't enough for him to win the first set: 1/7. Novak's constant occupation of the court made him run only 2,967.7 meters in the four sets... compared to 3,172.2 by Federer.
Champion Djokovic
Djokovic, who controls the ATP leaderboard with an iron fist, seals his ninth Grand Slam title (third at Wimbledon) and is now alone in eighth place in the all-time ranking. He leaves behind all those who have eight: Agassi, Connors, Lendl, Rosewall, Perry... and is only one behind 'Big Bill' Tilden, the seventh of all time, with ten Grand Slam titles. Curiously enough, these three Wimbledon titles tie Djokovic with his current coach, Boris Becker, whose first Wimbledon Championship, in 1985, comes exactly 30 years ago. Stefan Edberg, a two-time champion at the All England Club and a great rival of Becker in the 80s, sat among Roger Federer's coaches. In the Royal Box were Bjorn Borg, Rod Laver, Sir Alex Ferguson, and Thierry Henry.
The rain delay
With Djokovic leading 3-2 in the third set, after a break in the first game, the final was suspended for 21 minutes (between 16:21 and 16:42, London time) because it started raining on the Centre Court. However, neither the referee, Andrew Jarrett, nor the match umpire, the Iranian Ali Nili, gave the slightest signal to deploy the magnificent retractable roof of the so-called 'Cathedral' of tennis. Just as the final ended, it started raining again and the players returned to the locker rooms of the Centre Court. And right there, the roof of the Cathedral was deployed for the champion's proclamation ceremony.
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For more information
Check out the men's schedule and the women's schedule day by day, all the match results, as well as the latest news, the best photo galleries, and the videos of Wimbledon 2015.