The Wimbledon Championships are over for another year, with the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club closing their doors after welcoming thousands of avid fans of the racket sport through the turnstiles from 3-16 July.
History looked to be in the making, as defending champion Novak Djokovic was well-backed with those looking for a bet to match Roger Federer as the most successful player in the tournament’s men’s singles history.
On top of that, the controversial Serbian was on the hunt for a fifth-straight title — which would have also seen him emulate the best run of victories at Wimbledon in the Open Era, currently held by both Bjorn Borg (1976-1980) and Federer (2003-2007).
However, youngster Carlos Alcaraz took another huge step up in his career by defeating Djokovic in a five-set thriller to land his maiden Wimbledon title at just 20 years of age. It dethrones Nole as the king of Centre Court, but his period of dominance at The Championships is still worth looking back on.
2018
Due to the 2020 edition of The Championships being cancelled thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, Djokovic’s current run actually started five years ago in 2018. The Serbian had suffered one of the worst seasons of his career in 2017, failing to win any of the four Grand Slam events for the first time since 2010, and that form carried into the early part of 2018 — as he could fare no better than the fourth round at the Australian Open and the quarter-finals at Roland Garros.
His previous Wimbledon success was in 2015 and he entered the lawn tennis tournament as the 12th seed, but he made light work of his opponents in the opening rounds — beating Tennys Sandgren, Horacio Zeballos, Kyle Edmund and Karen Khachanov to reach the quarter-finals without much fuss. Japan’s Kei Nishikori was dispatched in four sets in the last eight before a five-set thriller with second seed Rafael Nadal booked Djokovic’s place in the final.
Eighth seed Kevin Anderson didn’t prove much of a contest for the Serbian in the final, with Djokovic winning the first two sets 6-2. The third set went to a tiebreak as the South African looked for a way back into the match, but Djokovic came out on top 7-3.
2019
Having followed up his grass court success with a third US Open triumph later in 2018 and started 2019 with a seventh win in the Australian Open and a semi-final run in the French Open, Djokovic entered the defence of his Wimbledon title on red-hot form and as the number one seed.
He beat Philipp Kohlschreiber, Denis Kudla, Hubert Hurkacz and Ugo Humbert in the first four rounds all while dropping just one set before seeing off David Goffin in straight sets in the quarter-finals. Djokovic gave up another set against Roberto Bautista Agut as he beat the Spaniard 6-2, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the semis to set up a battle of the titans against Federer.
The 2019 final is one that will go down in folklore, with Djokovic and Federer trading blows on Centre Court for almost five hours in an epic five-set encounter. The Swiss legend had two championship points in the fifth, but Djokovic ended up winning a nail-biting tiebreak to triumph 13-12.
2021
After a turbulent 2020, in which he won the Australian Open, lost the French Open final to Nadal and was disqualified from the US Open for hitting a line judge with a ball struck in anger, Djokovic’s 2021 campaign was much more consistent.
He went into Wimbledon on the back of victories in both Australia and France and was the heavy favourite to retain the famous gold trophy. The Serb suffered a bit of a scare in his first game against Jack Draper, losing the first set to the Brit, but he fought back to win the next three sets before easily dispatching Anderson, Kudla and Cristian Garin in straight sets.
Djokovic was flawless in the quarters and semi as well, beating Marton Fucsovics and Denis Shapovalov without dropping a set to seal his place in the final against Matteo Berrettini. The dream of winning the Grand Slam looked on for the Italian as he took the first set tiebreak, but Djokovic won the next three sets 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 to land his third-straight title.
2022
2022 started with more controversy surrounding his covid vaccination status, as his refusal to have the jab meant he was deported from Australia and denied the chance to win a fourth-straight title Down Under while he was later knocked out of the French Open in the quarter-finals by old rival Nadal.
It was going to take something special to stop Djokovic from winning a fourth Wimbledon in succession though and he breezed through the opening rounds with relative ease before facing the brink of elimination in the quarter-finals. Italian Jannik Sinner took a two-set lead over Djokovic, but the Serb turned the tide to come back and win. He had to win from behind again against Cameron Norrie in the semi-finals after losing the first set.
Sticking with the theme of going behind, Nick Kyrgios won the first set of the final 6-4. However, the Australian couldn’t go on to win his first single’s Grand Slam as Djokovic once again came back to win 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-67-3.