Wimbledon 2019: Mentally the toughest match, says Novak Djokovic
by Kapil Khera
Djokovic believes the marathon final against Federer was the kind of match that gives sense and value to every minute they spend on the court, training.
Novak Djokovic termed his nerve-wracking 7-6(5), 1-6, 7-6(4), 4-6, 13-12(3) victory over Roger Federer in the Wimbledon final as “mentally the toughest match he was ever part of.”“I had the most physically demanding match against [Rafael] Nadal that went almost six hours [Australian Open 2012]. But mentally, this was at a different level,” the 32-year-old said.
“For most of the match I was on the back foot. I was one shot away from losing. [But] in the most important moments, all three tiebreaks, I found my best game. It was a flashback to the US Open when I saved two match points against Federer as well [2010 & 2011].
“It was a huge relief in the end, honestly. These kind of matches give sense and value to every minute you spend on the court training and working. I try to play the match in my mind before I go on the court. I probably could not play this kind of scenario (smiling). But I always try to imagine myself as a winner. I think there is a power to that.”
It was not just Federer who Djokovic was up against, but the crowd as well. “At times you just try to ignore it, but it’s quite hard,” he said. “So, when the crowd is chanting ‘Roger’ I hear ‘Novak’ (smiling). It sounds silly, but it is like that. I try to convince myself that it’s like that.”
This one will sting
For Federer the defeat will surely sting. Even in 2018, he had lost to Kevin Anderson in the quarterfinals after being a match point up in the third set. But on Sunday, he was clearly the better player, winning 218 points to Djokovic’s 204, hitting 94 winners to 54 but tallying just ten unforced errors more (62-52).
The 37-year-old had also denied the Serb — arguably the greatest of returners — an opportunity to break till deep inside the fourth setMore importantly, to beat two of your greatest rivals back-to-back to claim a ninth Wimbledon and 21st Grand Slam overall would have ranked very high in the list of achievements.
Source : HINDU