Novak Djokovic beats Kyrgios to win 7th Wimbledon title

Novak Djokovic defeated Nick Kyrgios 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (7-3) on Sunday to win his 7th Wimbledon title to go one short of equalling Roger Federer’s record.

The Serb has not been beaten at Wimbledon since losing in the quarter-finals in 2017. It is a remarkable record and, despite a fast start from Kyrgios, this was probably one of Djokovic’s more straightforward wins.

And the magnitude of Djokovic’s achievement should not be camouflaged by the tiresome antics of Kyrgios. Indeed, it was soon clear Centre Court was going to be treated to the full Kyrgios repertoire.

To begin with, in fairness, it was the positive section of that repertoire. In the second game of the match, there was a 125mph second serve winner and the infamous underarm delivery. It was hard to believe but Djokovic looked a little fazed and surrendered the first break of the match with a double fault. With the tweener soon on show, it actually looked, at times, as though Kyrgios was showboating.

But there was little showboating when it came his serve, closing out the first set with an ace. Djokovic is not unaccustomed to losing the first set of a big match – it happened against Cameron Norrie on Friday – and he duly settled into a groove but still needed to save four break points in the ninth game of the second set before closing it out.

Ameh Jazzia-Becky