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View this email in your browser. WIMBLEDON FINAL - RESULT 🎾 Djokovic d Anderson 6-2, 6-2, 7-6(3)



A match that was an absolute beatdown for the first two sets, and then suddenly became competitive late in the 3rd. Anderson had been serving countless aces in his previous matches this fortnight at Wimbledon, but today he came up against the best returner to ever play the game. A measly 10 aces was all he was allowed today against a very stingy Novak, who looks back to his absolute best when returning serve, winning a ridiculous 39% of return points, and ensuring Anderson's 1st serve points won was only 69%. His lowest % of the tournament by a distance.



There were two things that won Djokovic the match, and his 4th Wimbledon title. The first was his serve, which has been a revelation all tournament. Winning a high % of both his 1st and 2nd serve (65% 2nd serve points won), Novak looked in complete control for the vast majority of his own service games. This afforded him the kind of freedom and calm that Anderson must have been craving down the other end of the court. The South African was in constant trouble on his own serve and lost each and every break point he faced (4/4).



The second decisive factor in this match was Djokovic's variation, especially early in the match. Novak was willing to mix it up and give Anderson different spins and depths to keep him from being able to sit on top of the baseline and dictate play. The tall South African was forced to deal with lots of angles and slices around his ankles, which he usually responded to with short balls, that Novak put away for easy winners, passing shots or at least forced an error.



For the reasons above, as well as Anderson looking like he was struggling physically after his pre-final trials and tribulations, the first 2 sets were about as competitive as an election in North Korea.



The 3rd set was much more interesting. Novak looked like he was starting to get tight and feel some of the effects of the epic, 5 hour, Nadal match yesterday. And Anderson's serve and groundstrokes seemed to finally warm up to somewhere near their pre-final level. Unfortunately for Kando though, when presented with multiple set point opportunities to take us into a 4th, he met the same fate as Rafa did for parts of yesterdays match. Djokovic came up clutch with some clever serving, as well as getting a bit of luck from some baseline titanium chalk, and managed to hold serve twice in struggling succession. The Serb then predictably went on to dominate the decisive tiebreak to capture grand slam title No.13.



What a fortnight for Novak Djokovic, who can finally said to be "back" for real this time after two years in the (relative) tennis wilderness. Serious appreciation should also be directed towards Kevin Anderson, who has worked absurdly hard to make 2 grand slam finals in the past year, which is no mean feat at the tail end of this golden generation of tennis. The man deserves, and has worked hard enough to get, another chance at a title match at some point in the future.

INTERVIEW/PRESS TL;DR 🗣 Novak post-win:



- "Today I felt great for the first two sets, in the third set Kevin stepped up, he was the better player, but I trusted myself. The more you win the more you have confidence to rely upon."

Source



- "It was a long journey, the elbow injury, it came back in Australia, I had a surgery, and maybe I got back on courts too fast in IW vand Miami. I had to go back to basics, regain confidence, to make a comeback."

Source



- "All my trophies here are special, all 4, but had I to pick, it would be the first, and then this one, because I had my son here with me."

Source



- "I did not expect to be in top shape so quickly here, especially after French Open."

Source



- "Playing Rafa in semis here was the biggest test I could have about that."

Source



- "He was at his first Wimbledon final, and believe me, you feel that. I was in my fifth, and tried to use my experience. I felt really good today, first 2 sets you could feel Kevin was nervous and not playing his best tennis."

Source



- "I understand people questioning if I can play consistently at this level. I do it too (smiling). I don't see the future, but I like to play hard courts, US Open has been a succesful tournament for me, let's see what happens."

Source



- "Me and Marian (Vajda) talked right after the match, and he said he will continue working with me at least till the end of the year. I'm so happy, those guys are so important to me."

Source



- "Having my son here was the biggest motivation. I dreamt of having him in my box, you're not allowed until you're 5. Roger had his boys and girls here last year, I hoped I could have Stefan one day."

Source

Anderson post-loss:



"My body didn't feel great, I was definitely quite nervous in the start, in the third I had some opportunities, I'd have liked to push it to another set."

Source



- "Honestly, to recover from the semis was very tought. I barely slept on friday night, saturday was better, but in the end the match wasn't about this, it was more about me not playing my best tennis. I just felt I couldn't play my level of tennis, anyway I had 5 set points in the 3rd, I hope next time I'll be able to play better from the start."

Source



- "I believe I can put myself into another of these matches, and get the result I'm looking for."

Source



- "Hopefully, about 5th set tiebreakers, there will be a dialogue with players. Usually there isn't, like about the shot clock, or the 16 seeds thing. No reason to continue after 6-6, where's the gain in continuing?"

Source



(Matt): Context = after the 6 hour, 99 game Isner vs Anderson match, there is discussion that the 5th set at Wimbledon shook change to a tiebreaker rather than the current 'win by two games' rule. SHOTS OF THE DAY 😮 Anderson with a great volley.

(BBC) Novak kept on bringing Anderson in with low slices and then easily passing him at the net. It forced Anderson out of any rhythm and robbed him of the ability to dictate with consistent groundstrokes.

(BBC) ANOTHER ONE.

(BBC) Another pass from Novak.

(BBC) Nice wrong-footer here from Kando.

(BBC) Classic Novak Slide + Winner. (BBC) EXTRAS...🔍🎤📊 Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic have now combined for 50 grand slam titles 😳



All in one era...

Kevin Anderson played a total of 349 games at Wimbledon 2018 over the course of his 7 matches. A record. 99 of them came in one match vs Isner.



(Matt): Tough to find the original specific record he broke, but it was somewhere between 321-325 games, set in the 1950's if my research is right.

This is the 16th consecutive year that Wimbledon has been won by one of Federer, Nadal, Djokovic or Murray.

Djokovic is now 5th in the ATP 'Race to London' and will officially be 10th when the new rankings come out tomorrow.



(Matt): today will probably be the last time Novak is outside the top ten (No. 21 pre-Wimbledon) for quite some time.

Full results from Wimbledon 2018:



Men's Singles: Djokovic

Women's Singles: Kerber

Men's Doubles: Sock & M. Bryan

Women's Doubles: Krejcikova & Siniakova

Mixed Doubles: Peya/Melichar

Boys' Singles: Tseng

Girls' Singles: Swiatek LOL 😂 Novak response to those who have doubted him over the past 2 years.

(BBC) The adorable moment Novak's son, Stefan, saw himself and his dad, on camera. "That's Daddy!"

(BBC) Guess who's back, back again. (BBC) Thanks for reading the first few weeks (and first slam coverage!) of The Racquet. It's been an adventure and it's still pretty rough, but this is all part of trying to create a place for non-clickbait, non-biased, tennis news and analysis. If you want to say hi you can find me on Twitter or Discord below. ✌️

Matt Share Tweet Forward GAME, SET & MATCH 👋 The Racquet is created, and written, by Matt. You can find me on twitter by tapping/clicking this. You early subscribers (Beta testers) get access to 'The Racquet' Discord. Tap/click the Discord button below to join (we even have Jerzy Janowicz emojis). If you know anyone who would like 'The Racquet' here is the link to send them so they can sign up: https://theracquet.co See you next week for a 'Best Of Wimbledon' issue!