Novak Djokovic won Wimbledon for a fifth time in historic fashion beating Roger Federer 7-6 (7-6), 1-6, 7-6 (7-4), 4-6, 13-12 (7-3) in a match that featured the first fifth-set tiebreaker in Wimbledon singles history. The final was the longest men’s final in Wimbledon history at 4 hours and 57 minutes. The win was the 16th major title for Djokovic, closing the gap between he and Federer, the all-time leading major winner at 20 and Rafael Nadal at 18.
Djokovic saved two match points with Federer serving for the match at 8-7, 40-15 but was not able to finish off the Serbian. Djokovic becomes the first man to save a match point in a Wimbledon final since Bob Falkenburg in saved three match points in the 1948 singles final against John Bromwich.
“I’ll try to forget,” joked Federer, who is less than a month shy of his 38th birthday and would have been the oldest man to win a Grand Slam title in the professional era.
This year marked the first year that Wimbledon implemented a tie-breaker in the fifth-set at 12-12, in response to Kevin Anderson and John Isner going to 26-24 in the men’s singles semifinals, causing havoc in the tournament schedule and causing for Anderson, the semifinal winner over Isner, to not be able to be fresh enough to play at his best in the final against Djokovic in the 2018 final. The Federer vs. Djokovic match was the first singles match this year to go into the 12-12 final-set tiebreaker, but a doubles match early in the event was decided by the final-set tiebreaker.
To read about other great tennis matches in history, order “The Greatest Tennis Matches of All Time” book here by Steve Flink: https://www.amazon.com/Greatest-Tennis-Matches-All-Time/dp/0942257936/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=greatest+tennis+matches+of+all+time&qid=1563128508&s=gateway&sr=8-1
