Rafael Nadal punched the strings of his racket as if it were the culprit instead of the faithful companion that had helped him win two Wimbledon titles and 20 straight matches in this exclusive club on the outskirts of London. 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.
He has been better than him on three surfaces and in four countries now, and there were rub-the-eyes moments in this Wimbledon final when it seemed Djokovic was toying with him, too. Although the Spaniard Nadal, 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, the 24-year-old Serbian, 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 supersized 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 himself tossed racket after racket into the stands and kissed the grass and then decided to take it a big step further by actually eating a piece of the Centre Court turf, too.
“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 this one, Djokovic assured himself of taking over the No. 1 ranking for the first time after the tournament.
Sunday’s victory was the cream on the strawberries, but it was also something much more substantial in that it left no room for argument. If Nadal had 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 on 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, with 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 straight times, including twice on American hard courts, 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 gonna 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.”
Nadal, matter of fact in defeat, chose not to argue with that declaration of epochal change.
“Could be,” Nadal said. “Since January, it’s been a new era, no? He’s won practically everything. He’s been the best.
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