2019 Match of the Year: Federer vs. Djokovic, Wimbledon final

The Grandstand‘s Top 10 Matches of the Year list concludes with No. 1, the historic Wimbledon between Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer.

Tennis Channel named the Novak Djokovic vs. Roger Federer 2019 Wimbledon final the Match of the Decade. So it goes without saying that it was also the Match of the Year.

Was the quality as incredible as Dominic Thiem vs. Djokovic (Nitto ATP Finals) or Stan Wawrinka vs. Stefanos Tsitsipas (French Open)? Perhaps not, but it is almost impossible to sustain such a ridiculous level for four hours and 57 minutes amidst the pressure of a Wimbledon final. At times, Federer and Djokovic did.

It was actually the 37-year-old Swiss who sustained it more often than not. He refused to lose a single set prior to a tiebreaker and he completely dominated the second before also taking the fourth without too much trouble. Federer outperformed Djokovic in just about every statistical category: more aces, fewer double-faults, higher first-serve percentage, more first-serve points won, more second-serve points won, more net points won in terms of both quantity and effectiveness, more break points won and with a better conversion rate, more winners, and more total points. Only in unforced errors did Djokovic check a single box.

The Serb, however, could not have been more clutch. He forced a fifth set by taking the first and the third in tiebreakers and then famously saved double-championship point with Federer serving at 9-8, 40-15. Six service holds later, the first-ever 12-12 tiebreaker in singles match had to decide it.

Again, Djokovic proved to be too tough when it mattered most.

In his press conference, Federer was asked about how he recovers from a defeat such as this one.

“Similar to getting broken when serving for the match,” he explained. “Take it on your chin, you move on. You try to forget, try to take the good things out of this match. There’s just tons of it. Like similar to ’08 maybe, I will look back at it and think, ‘Well, it’s not that bad after all.’ For now, it hurts–and it should, like every loss does here at Wimbledon.

“I think it’s a mindset. I’m very strong at being able to move on because I don’t want to be depressed about actually an amazing tennis match.”

Said Djokovic, “It was probably the most demanding, mentally most demanding, match I was ever part of. I had the most physically demanding match against Nadal in the (2012) finals of Australia that went almost six hours. But mentally this was (a) different level, because of everything.

“I was one shot away from losing the match, as well. This match had everything. It could have gone easily his way.”

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