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Wimbledon 2015: The tournament that was

The true champions of men's tennis prove it over five sets. (AFP PHOTO / CARL COURT)
Roar Guru
13th July, 2015
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Another edition of the Wimbledon Championships is over and it concluded with Novak Djokovic repeating as men’s champion and Serena Williams completing a second non-calendar Grand Slam.

In the men’s division, world number one Djokovic successfully retained his title by defeating Roger Federer in the championship match, and apart from the first two sets which went to tiebreaks, it wasn’t as intense as last year’s final was.

Federer imploded in the first set, during which he had two set points on the Djokovic serve in the twelfth game, to drop it in a tiebreak, however he would hit back by taking the second set, also in a tiebreak, to level the match at one set all.

From there the Djoker dominated, taking the final two sets to become the first man since the Fed Express to repeat as Wimbledon champion. In doing so he thwarted the Swiss’ bid to not only win a record-breaking eighth title but also become the oldest champion at the All England Club.

It has also buried the demons of his heartbreaking French Open final defeat to another Swiss, Stan Wawrinka, who this year narrowly failed to reach his first Wimbledon semi-final, going down to Richard Gasquet in five sets.

The world number one will now rest up before launching into the US Open series, which will culminate in his bid to win a tenth Grand Slam title at Flushing Meadows in September.

As for Federer, the defeat was all the more disappointing given the manner in which he ruthlessly dominated Andy Murray in the semi-finals. The Swiss Maestro has now endured twelve straight majors without winning, currently the longest drought in his Grand Slam career since he captured his first Wimbledon crown in 2003.

Djokovic winning the title aside, there were some more big stories to come out of this year’s Wimbledon Championships, including another early exit for two-time champion Rafael Nadal, who is now apparently on the decline.

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The Spaniard’s four-set loss to 102nd-ranked Jamaican-turned-German Dustin Brown continued what has been a poor season for the 14-time major champion, which saw him surrender his crown at the French Open to Novak Djokovic.

Nadal now faces the possibility of going through an entire year without winning a Grand Slam title, let alone reaching a final, for the first time since he won his first French Open as a teenager in 2005, and first overall since 2004.

It will now remain to be seen whether he can bounce back on the American hard courts and thus arrest his decline, and with very little rankings points to defend for the remainder of this year, there will be no excuses.

Controversy plagued the Aussies’ campaign this year, with Bernard Tomic lashing out at Tennis Australia over their lack of funding for him and Nick Kyrgios bending the rules throughout his four-match run which ended in a controversial four-set loss to Richard Gasquet in the fourth round.

The 27th seed Tomic was easily overwhelmed by Novak Djokovic on Centre Court, after which he used the press conference to attack personnel such as Pat Rafter and Craig Tiley over their treatment of him, leading to his omission from the Davis Cup tie against Kazakhstan this weekend.

Kyrgios, on the other hand, appeared to tank a game against Gasquet on Manic Monday but found some strong defence in Roger Federer, who likened that game to a boxer putting his hands down during a fight, and Andy Murray, who in his early years struggled as compatriot Tim Henman descended into his final playing years.

But it wasn’t all that bad on the Aussie front, with Casey Dellacqua and Sam Stosur both reaching the third round in the singles and Lleyton Hewitt bidding farewell to the All England Club after 17 years’ of good service.

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Hewitt, who will retire after next year’s Australian Open, fell agonisingly short of setting up a dream Centre Court showdown against Novak Djokovic when he went down to Jarkko Nieminen in five sets.

The 2002 champion, who was the last man to win Wimbledon before the big quartet of Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray won the next thirteen titles between them, prolonged his stay at the All England Club by teaming with Thanasi Kokkinakis and Dellacqua in the men’s and mixed doubles, respectively.

His involvement in both draws ended before the quarter-finals, and so too does his Wimbledon playing career. He will now switch focus to the Davis Cup tie against Kazakhstan this weekend, and then ponder whether to give the US Open a final shot before hanging up the racquet at Melbourne Park next January.

In the women’s, world number one Serena Williams captured her sixth Wimbledon crown by defeating rising Spaniard Garbine Muguruza in the championship match in straight sets.

In doing so, she became the first woman since herself in 2002-3 to hold all four Grand Slam titles simultaneously, and has a chance to sweep the Grand Slam year at the US Open in September.

En route to the title she had to endure Heather Watson serving for the match in the third set in the third round, before the American broke back to win it 7-5. That was then followed by victories over three of her biggest rivals, namely her elder sister Venus and former world number ones Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova.

Williams’ 21st Grand Slam title overall has brought her not only to within one Grand Slam title of the Open Era record of 22 held by Steffi Graf, but also a Calendar Grand Slam which has not been achieved since Graf in 1998.

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The world number one, who is now roughly 7,000 points ahead of nearest rival Sharapova in the world rankings, will start as the hot favourite to complete the calendar Grand Slam sweep at Flushing Meadows in three months’ time.

It would further enhance her reputation as the greatest tennis player mankind has ever produced, and would come four years after her world ranking plummeted to 175 following nearly twelve months out with a life-threatening foot injury.

At the rate in which she has dominated on the WTA Tour this year, it would seem that only injury, complacency or poor form will prevent her from reigning in New York, where she has won the last three times.

As for her vanquished opponent Muguruza, reaching the Wimbledon final and defeating opponents such as Angelique Kerber, Caroline Wozniacki and Agnieszka Radwanska en route is only just the beginning and there is no doubt that she will contend at more Grand Slams in the future.

The Spaniard entered the Championships with little expectations following a poor lead-up to the tournament which included losing to a British wildcard in Eastbourne, but her elevation to the top ten will now mean more pressure on her to continue to perform well at major tournaments in the future.

That being said, she could risk falling into the same trap that Eugenie Bouchard appears to have fallen into in recent times. Just twelve months after reaching the final and entering the top ten, the Canadian lost in the first round this year and has fallen out of the top 20 as a result of failing to defend her points from last year.

Defending champion Petra Kvitova, third seed Simona Halep and seventh seed Ana Ivanovic were also among the notable first-week casualties, with neither of them getting past the third round.

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And so that’s all she wrote at Wimbledon in 2015. Congratulations to Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams, the two singles champions, and commiserations to the vanquished, Roger Federer and Garbine Muguruza.

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