The 2014 Wimbeldon Finals
I was at Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon and watched the finals by the world’s top players.On Sunday July 6, Serbian Novak Djokovic won his second Wimbledon Men’s Singles title with five sets against Roger Federer. The hard fought match lasted nearly four hours. At the end of epic fifth set, the 32 years old veteran Swiss master could not summon up enough to break the spirit of the 27 years old Novak Djokovic who is expecting a baby and getting married with fiancée Jelena at Sveti Stefan Aman Hotel in Montenegro, the week following Wimbledon. Turning 33 next month and now the father of four, Federer managed the “marathon” match very well and gave himself a fleeting sight of victory that may have become a reality against anyone else. He has changed his racket and has Stefan Edberg as coach and ran 400 meters more than Djokovic during the match putting out shots everywhere. But despite of Federer’s excellent performance, Djokovic finally prevailed at 6-7, 6-4, 7-6, 5-7, 6-4. Ironically, Djokovic’s coach, 3 time Wimbledon winner Boris Becker lost the Wimbledon title to Federer’s coach Stefan Edberg in 1990.
Fererer was bidding to win his 8th title at Wimbledon setting new record of William Renshaw and Pete Sampas who each won seven times. The all time record holder is Martina Navratilova who won Women’s Singles at Wimbledon nine times. Martina was at Center Court cheering her fellow Czech player Petra Kvitova who won the Women’s Singles title. Among the noted spectators at Center Court were Prince William and Kate Middleton, David and Victoria Beckham, Samuel L Jackson, Bradley Cooper, Hugh Jackman and from San Francisco, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison with girlfriend Nikita Kahn and Benchmark Capital General Partner Peter Fenton. On Saturday July 5, Petra Kvitova defeated Canadian Eugenie Bouchard 6-2, 6-0 to win Women’s Singles Final in just 55 minutes. Kvitova also won the Wimbledon title in 2011. The 20 years old Bouchard is seen as the heir apparent to Maria Sharapova and the rising star with intense drive and ambition of winning the title as her twin sister Beatrice and sister Charlotte flew in from Canada to cheer her on. The loss was very disappointing, I saw her crying on her mother’s shoulder in the Player’s Lounge. Italian duo Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci claimed Women’s doubles title to complete career Grand Slam together. They defeated Hungarian Timea Babos and French Kristina Mladenovic 6-1, 6-3. Earlier last week, defending Champion Andy Murray was trashed at Quarter-Final by Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov in three sets 6-1, 7-6, 6-2 and Rafael Nadal was defeated by 19 years old Australian Nick Kyrgios.