It took Novak Djokovic five minutes to break Kevin Anderson’s serve, but he could not break his admirable spirit over two hours and 19 minutes in a Wimbledon final memorable only for the South African’s dogged but doomed fightback.

Anderson, troubled early in the match by a sore right elbow, was forced to endure one of the most gruelling afternoons of his career but Djokovic suffered too, swearing at the crowd as his frustrations consumed him before he secured his 13th grand slam title, his fourth here, winning 6-2, 6-2, 7-6 (3).

The sun-bathed Centre Court audience can hardly have imagined when they bought their tickets that they would not be seeing either or both of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal contest the final. Anderson beat Federer in an excellent quarter-final, Djokovic saw off Nadal over two days in the second semi-final.

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Shattered after surviving six hours and 35 minutes against John Isner in the first semi-final on Friday, Anderson – the 2017 US Open runner-up – refused to surrender in his second major final and dug deep to make a fight of it in the third set, although it was still a poor spectacle. After last year’s final, when Marin Cilic’s blistered feet did for him against Federer, the closing Sunday needed something special, and this was not it.

The longest rally of the match lasted 15 shots, as Anderson strove to hold serve at 0-2 in the second set. There were the usual sympathetic cheers when he managed it, but pointlessness and inevitability hung heavily in the suffocating air.

Of the 950 points he had served for in the championships, Anderson, a serving behemoth and decent athlete, chose to remain on the baseline for 920 of them. That is either unshakable faith in his ability to hit opponents off the court, tactical ineptitude, exhaustion, or a combination of all three. Not once in the first hour of this match did he come in behind his serve. Neither did Djokovic – but he had no need to; he won through with patience rather than inspiration.

After an hour and 10 minutes, Anderson had the crowd cheering him for all the right reasons when he forced his first break point of the final, but he could not convert and two minutes later the second set was gone, too.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Novak Djokovic stretches to return the ball. The Serb had the physical edge on his opponent after Anderson’s marathon semi-final. Photograph: Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty Images

When he went ahead for the first time in the match after an hour and 20 minutes by holding serve at the start of the third, Anderson surpassed Federer’s total of four games in his embarrassing French Open final loss against Nadal in 2008. That, though, was the Spaniard in his pomp on clay against a rival who did well to reach the final.

The same could be said for Anderson, of course, who showed fortitude in trying circumstances, his body drained but his spirit still ticking. An hour and 44 minutes into the struggle, he got his second break point, at 4-3 in the third, and again Djokovic held.

Ten minutes later, Djokovic, whose concentration had plainly lapsed, gifted him a set point with a sloppy backhand. When he saved, he turned to the crowd, mouth only half-covered, and said: “Shut the fuck up!” It was audible to those courtside, and obvious to lip-readers – not his finest moment.

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Anderson grabbed another set point as Djokovic threatened to implode, but the Serb, angry and determined, fought to deuce and levelled at 5-5. It was the most tense and engaging passage of play all afternoon.

When the Guardian asked Djokovic last week if ranting and raving on court helped or hindered him, he replied, “It depends. Sometimes it fires you up, so … Sometimes that’s what you need to be more alert on the court.”

Anderson certainly had Djokovic’s attention as the Serb went two points down when serving to stay in the set, only an hour or so after looking like wrapping it up. But again, Djokovic found something when he needed it, surviving three set points and three deuce points to force the tie-break with his sixth ace.

Anderson came to the final with 182 aces on his log – 22 behind Isner – and Djokovic had 70. The trailing underdog also had an edge in 2018 tie-breaks, having won 21 out of 34 compared with Djokovic’s six from 14. The odds were with Anderson. But soon Djokovic had four championship points; Anderson saved one with a mid-court smash, but could do little about his opponent’s big serve down the middle and the ordeal was over.

Djokovic stood near the net, screamed to the heavens and bent down to pinch a mouthful of the sacred turf. The crowd he had regarded as hostile for most of the final, rose to greet him, perhaps not as warmly as they would have embraced Anderson in the event he had conjured up the most unlikely of wins, but good enough to calm the winner’s temper.

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He is the most underrated of the Big Four, and the only one to get to the final Sunday this time. Federer, Nadal, Andy Murray and Djokovic might not share the Wimbledon stage again, given the ravages of time and injury, but the Serb will probably not mind that. He is one of the game’s great survivors and, when he needed to, he found his inner beast again on Sunday.

He is back in the top 10, rising from No 21 in the world, and is getting back to something like his best as his longtime rivals and young contenders struggle, still, to assert themselves. Anderson moves up to five in the world and continues to surprise everyone. In a match he might have lost an hour before the World Cup final in Moscow had even started, he very nearly made it to half-time.