Djokovic on 7th heaven
London: Novak Djokovic won his seventh Wimbledon title and fourth in a row by coming from behind to beat Nick Kyrgios on Centre Court.
Unseeded Australian Kyrgios veered from laser-focussed to horribly distracted, arguing at times with his box, the umpire and the crowd.
Amidst it all, No1 seed Djokovic produced a display of exceptional consistency, making only 17 unforced errors in three hours and one minute, taking the title 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6.
The 35-year-old Serb now has 21 Grand Slam titles, one more than Roger Federer and one fewer the Rafael Nadal. His form has been patchy this fortnight but, as is so often the case, he brought his A-game in the Championship match.
Kyrgios was playing in his first major final at the age of 27 and was near-perfect in the first set, sending down seven aces and dropping only five points on serve.
He also appeared icy-calm and the 'Let's go!' he let out after Djokovic double faulted to hand him the crucial break was the first peep we had heard from him thus far.
The set flashed by in half an hour as the match began at Kyrgios's lightening pace. From early in the second set, though, Djokovic began to elongate the rallies and Kyrgios was forced to grind things out.
In the fourth game Djokovic surged 40-0 up on the Kyrgios serve; a lucky net cord and he had broken the Australian's serve for the first time in his career.
The Serb saved three break points as he served out to win his first set against Kyrgios in their third meeting.
At 2-2 in the third set Kyrgios complained to umpire Renaud Lichtenstein about a woman in the crowd: 'She's drunk out of her mind in the first row, talking to me in the middle of the game.
'The one with the dress, the one who looks like she's had about 700 drinks.'
There were some other words in there and one of them earned him his first warning, for an audible obscenity.
At 4-4, from 40-0 up Kyrgios played a terrible game to be broken and spent the whole of the subsequent changeover shouting at his box, apparently berating them for their flat body language.
Djokovic is not the man to gift a break to and he served out to move within a set of the title.
As the fourth set progressed Kyrgios looked far more focussed and dangerous as he dragged Djokovic into a tiebreak.
But Kyrgios double faulted in the first point of the breaker and Djokovic closed out the match with ease.
He raised his arms aloft in celebration. That's 28 wins in a row for Djokovic at Wimbledon and on this evidence, he will take some stopping in 2023.