Djokovic’s Dream Made Real With Wimbledon Conquest

England — It was the final game of an era, and Rafael Nadal punched the strings of his racket as if it were the culprit instead of the faithful companion that had helped him win 2 Wimbledon titles and 20 straight matches here.

What has long defined Nadal is his optimism: his ability to play the point at hand without being weighed down by the baggage from the last. But Novak Djokovic has been simply too much for even Nadal to bear this season.

Djokovic has been better than Nadal on three surfaces and in four countries now, and there were rub-the-eyes moments in this Wimbledon final Sunday when it seemed Djokovic was toying with him, too. Although Nadal, a Spaniard who is a born competitor, managed to wrestle the third set his way, he could not find the form or the solutions — to borrow one of his favorite English words — to keep Djokovic from fulfilling his boyhood quest and winning the men’s Wimbledon final, 6-4, 6-1, 1-6, 6-3.

“The most special day of my life,” Djokovic said. “This is my favorite tournament, the tournament I always dreamed of winning, the first tournament I ever watched in my life. I think I’m still sleeping.”

In fact, Djokovic, a 24-year-old Serb, has perhaps never looked more wide awake than he did as he clenched his fists — no, his entire body — and roared with wide eyes and release in the direction of his supersize entourage in the players box.

The scenes of celebration were as memorable as the achievement as Djokovic’s coach, Marian Vajda, and trainers locked arms and jumped in unison; as Djokovic’s parents and two younger brothers raised their arms and then embraced; as Djokovic tossed racket after racket into the stands and kissed the grass, then decided to take it a big step further by actually eating a piece of the Centre Court turf.

“I felt like an animal; I wanted to see how it tastes,” Djokovic said. “It tastes good.”

It was enough to make Pat Cash’s protocol-breaking climb into the players box in 1987 seem positively understated, but then who could blame Djokovic or his clan?

“When I won in 2008 the first time, the emotions were very high,” Nadal said in his postmatch remarks. “I can imagine how Novak feels today. It’s a special day.”

Make that a special week. On Friday, by defeating Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the semifinals in a match that was more consistently entertaining than the final, Djokovic assured himself of the No. 1 ranking for the first time.

Sunday’s victory was the cream on the strawberries, but it was also something much more substantial because it left no room for argument. If Nadal had successfully defended his title, he would have dropped to No. 2 despite holding three of the four Grand Slam singles titles. With Djokovic winning and often dominating Sunday, he is the player who has won two of three major tournaments this year, beginning with the Australian Open in January.

Djokovic is an astonishing 48-1 in 2011, his only loss coming against Roger Federer in the semifinals of the French Open that Nadal eventually won. But Djokovic’s loss in Paris was the big exception to the new rules. Djokovic has beaten Federer and Nadal — the two players who have defined this era — eight times in nine matches this year, and he has been stingiest of all with Nadal: beating him five consecutive times, including twice on American hardcourts, twice on his beloved red clay and now on grass.

“When one player beats you five times is because today my game don’t bother him a lot,” Nadal said in English. “Today, probably against me, he’s playing better than my level. Find solutions, that’s what I have to try and that’s what I’m going to try.”

Sunday’s victory was also Djokovic’s first over Nadal in a best-of-five-set or Grand Slam match after six previous defeats.

“For four years, it was Roger, Rafa, Rafa, Roger,” said Djokovic’s mother, Dijana. “Now it is Novak, Novak, Novak, Novak.”

Djokovic has perhaps never been better than in the second set Sunday. He took flight after cracking open a tight, serve-dominated first set by winning the only break point of the set. With the early lead, he began hitting high note after high note.

The set required just 33 minutes, and though the Wimbledon statisticians are famously generous, it was actually possible to believe them when they credited Djokovic with 13 winners and just 2 unforced errors.

“He was too good in that set, nothing more to say,” Nadal said.

There were ample opportunities for conversation the rest of the way, particularly after Nadal took advantage of Djokovic’s palpable drop in form and energy in the third set. The relentless, in-the-moment Nadal of old would have presumably pushed Djokovic to the limit from there, but Nadal could not summon the accuracy or the ability in the fourth set.

He made unforced errors with his forehand with time and space available, and struggled to control his backhand drive, relying too often on the one-handed slice. He allowed Djokovic to serve for the title he has been dreaming of since he was a 7-year-old watching satellite television in his parents’ restaurant in the Serbian mountain resort of Kopaonik.

Djokovic’s parents were skiers, not tennis players. He might have been a competitive skier, too, if the gifted tennis coach Jelena Gencic, the former mentor of Monica Seles, had not happened to give a summer clinic on some hardcourts just across the parking lot. She was the one who first saw his talent, first told his parents they had a “golden child” and predicted that he would be a champion.

Djokovic remembers practicing for the Wimbledon ceremony to come, holding up a small trophy and saying: “Hi, I’m Novak Djokovic. I won Wimbledon.”

Now, nearly two decades later, he was one game away, and he did not wait for it, even if he made Nadal wait for him by — as usual — bouncing, bouncing, bouncing the ball. At 30-30, he served and volleyed for the first time in the set, surprising Nadal and knocking away a backhand volley winner. He came forward again on the final point, and as Nadal’s backhand sailed long, he dropped to the grass and was soon holding and kissing the real thing.

“Getting a trophy at Wimbledon,” his mother said, “that’s why he started to play tennis.”


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