Novak Djokovic acknowledged that he was worried. His coach was, too.
Could Djokovic ever return to the top of tennis? To the heights he had already reached?
Could he put aside the time lost to a painful right elbow that required surgery and the disappointment of poor results? Could he end a Grand Slam drought that lasted more than two years?
Photo: Reuters
All of that fretting seemed misplaced on Sunday. Back at his best, Djokovic became Wimbledon champion for the fourth time, grabbing a lead right away against a weary Kevin Anderson in the final and holding off a late challenge to win 6-2, 6-2, 7-6 (7/3).
“There were several moments where I was frustrated and questioning whether I can get back [to the] desired level or not, but that makes this whole journey even more special for me,” Djokovic said. “It’s easy to talk now, and look back at it and be kind of grateful, but I really am grateful to go through this kind of, so to say, mixed emotions, turbulences as well, mentally, moments of doubt and disappointment, and frustration, anger.”
It is Djokovic’s 13th major trophy, the fourth-highest total in the history of men’s tennis, trailing only Roger Federer’s 20, Rafael Nadal’s 17 and Pete Sampras’ 14, but it is also Djokovic’s first since he completed a career Grand Slam at the 2016 French Open.
“It was a long journey,” the Serbian 31-year-old said. “I couldn’t pick a better place, to be honest, in the tennis world to peak and to make a comeback.”
A year ago at the All England Club, Djokovic quit in his quarter-final because of the elbow, then took the rest of the year off.
After the operation in February, Djokovic’s results were mediocre. He realized later he tried to come back too soon.
“I really was impatient,” he said.
In April, he reunited with Marian Vajda, the man who had coached Djokovic for years before Boris Becker and Andre Agassi.
“I always had doubt,” Vajda said. “I was thinking really negative.”
They built “the new Novak,” as Vajda called it.
Retooled his serve. Made adjustments to other strokes.
Still, Djokovic was so dispirited by his upset loss at the French Open last month that he vowed, in the heat of the moment, to skip the grass-court circuit.
Good thing he did not stick to that.
Because he fell out of the top 20 for the first time in more than a decade, world No. 21 Djokovic is the lowest-ranked Wimbledon winner since Goran Ivanisevic in 2001.
On Sunday, Djokovic looked far more like a guy who used to be world No. 1.
“The first two sets Novak beat up on me pretty bad,” said Anderson, who played college tennis at the University of Illinois.
Anderson could be excused for exhaustion. His semi-final was the second-longest Grand Slam match in history, lasting more than six-and-a-half hours until he edged John Isner 26-24 in the fifth set. That followed another extended fifth set in his 13-11 upset of eight-time champion Federer in the quarter-finals.
After they shook hands, Djokovic performed his personal ritual of bending down to grab a couple of blades of grass and plopping them in his mouth, savoring the triumph.
He did the same after his Wimbledon titles in 2011, 2014 and 2015.
One key difference on this day was the presence of two special guests: The doctor who performed the elbow surgery and Djokovic’s three-year-old son, Stefan, who was in the stands for the trophy presentation.
Later, they met in a hallway and Djokovic knelt down to hug his son.
“It feels amazing because for the first time in my life, I have someone screaming: ‘Daddy. Daddy,’” he said.
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