Djokovic takes over at the summit

TENNIS:NOVAK DJOKOVIC has begun his first reign at the summit of men's tennis with an emphatic, flawed but never dull win over Rafael Nadal that could lead to many more appearances on Centre Court on the concluding Sunday of Wimbledon.

If the 24-year-old Serb with the game from heaven and the jokes from hell can extend his dominance across the other surfaces of the tour over the next five or six years, there might be a seamless handing on of the torch soon.

Lending his 6-4, 6-1, 1-6, 6-3 win poignancy was the win in the women’s final the day before by Petra Kvitova over Maria Sharapova: this is the first time in the 125 years of the championships that two players from eastern Europe have ruled simultaneously here.

It might be premature to declare Djokovic’s win as the start of a new era in the men’s game, but when he beat the muted champion under gloomy skies yesterday – his fifth win against Nadal in a final this season – he also wrenched away the Spaniard’s number one world ranking. That coronation, official today but inevitable since early in the year, ends the seven-year duopoly of Nadal and Roger Federer, whose loss in the quarter-finals at the hands of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was a surprise rather than a thunderbolt given that the Swiss, 30 next month, has not won a major in 18 months.

Federer, who played beautifully here, refuses to concede he is on the decline, pointing to a semi-final win in Paris that ended Djokovic’s run of 43 matches unbeaten. Federer had a terrific French Open all the way to the final where he lost to Nadal.

But that old rivalry has lost its edge. The finals that will capture the public’s imagination from now on will be between Nadal and Djokovic – with Andy Murray anxious to break into the upper circle. Beaten by Nadal on Friday after taking a set, the world number four is yet to prove he can match his nearest contemporary, Djokovic, for consistency when it matters.

While Nadal will not be encouraged by his performance yesterday to believe he can keep the rampant pretender at bay there either, such an admission will never pass his lips. He has come back from two sets down three times in his career, and at Roland Garros last month he trailed John Isner 2-1 before saving his title with two of the best sets the American had ever had the privilege to witness at close quarters. But the Mallorcan lefty could not muster a similar effort yesterday on grass.

In the past fortnight Nadal has played well but not spectacularly – he was cut down in the quarter-finals on Wednesday by a foot injury that almost put him out of the tournament – and the final was a reflection of that form, a perceptible dip from the heights of last year, when he owned all but the Australian title. He was reaching for his 11th major to move within five of Federer’s but there is no certainty now that the duel between them will ever revisit the intensity of recent years. They will win titles but the emergence of Djokovic since Serbia won the Davis Cup in December has sent a rousing message to the field that there is a new, sometimes eccentric and never boring presence at the top of the mountain.

The final lasted two hours and 28 minutes but there were passages of this almost Shakespearean rollercoaster of a drama, especially in the second and third sets, which flashed before our eyes like swiftly-scripted sonnets. The match looked wrapped up after 74 minutes, the time it took Djokovic to fix Nadal to the rack over two sets. And then an astonishing lapse in the third, in which Nadal served to love three times in just half an hour, set the court buzzing.

Djokovic denied he had frozen. “I went the opposite way,” he said. “I relaxed too much at the start of the set. I wasn’t focused. When you’re playing someone like Nadal, he uses his opportunity and he gets back into the match. He deserved to win the third set 6-1, but I made a lot of unforced errors.”

He nailed it in the fourth, though. When Nadal double-faulted at 4-3 then hit long to drop serve, the excitement of just 44 minutes earlier turned to a low hum of resignation. Djokovic steeled himself for the kill and got to break with an audacious back-hand volley. This was Djokovic’s moment. He bounced the ball 15 times before the final serve. Nadal knew there was no room for error. He traded nervously then, to the astonishment of his fans, overhit a backhand and the deed was done. At least ‘twere done quickly.