Two-time Australian champion Djokovic now has three Grand Slam titles to his name and has won an astonishing 48 out of 49 matches in 2011.
His 41 consecutive wins - until that one defeat to Roger Federer in Paris - included four over Nadal in the finals of Masters Series events, two of them on the Spaniard's favoured clay.
But Nadal had not been beaten at Wimbledon since a five-set loss to Federer in the final of 2007, and his record against Djokovic in grand slams was 5-0.
The first set went with serve as both men found their range right from the off.
But the Serbian slowly began to come out on top in the long, thumping rallies, and two stunning forehand winners took him to 30-30 with his opponent serving to stay in the first set.
Suddenly Nadal cracked, dumping a tame shot into the net to hand Djokovic the set point and then missing with his favourite forehand down the line.
A lucky net cord took Nadal to 0-30 in the opening game of the second set but Djokovic was like a rock, and it was Nadal who was making the errors - more of them than he had in four sets of his semi-final against Andy Murray.
Djokovic guaranteed he would be world number one in the new rankings when he beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the last four and he followed up by outplaying defending champion Nadal on Centre Court on Sunday.
"For these kind of days, I was practising every day, being dedicated, being a tennis professional," he said.
"Any athlete in the world dreams of being number one. This is something that gives us a lot of motivation. So finally when you really do it and when you know that you're the best, it's just an amazing achievement."
0 commentaires:
Speak up your mind
Tell us what you're thinking... !