Novak Djokovic and Kevin Anderson will be squaring off for the seventh time in their careers when they battle for the Wimbledon title on Sunday afternoon.
Djokovic is leading the head-to-head series 5-1, including 1-0 at the All-England Club. That’s where they last met, with a 2015 fourth-round showdown going the way of the Serb–who battled back from a two-set deficit to prevail 6-7(6), 6-7(6), 6-1, 6-4, 7-5 on his eventual way to the title. He has won five in a row at Anderson’s expense since losing a three-setter 10 years ago at the Miami Masters.
Win or lose, this fortnight has put an exclamation point on Djokovic’s resurgence following a period of inactivity and an injury-plagued slump. The world No. 21 set the table for it by showing tons of improvement during the clay-court swing, with a semifinal showing in Rome and a quarterfinal performance at the French Open. He finished runner-up to Marin Cilic at Queen’s Club before maintaining his fine grass-court form through five mostly routine Wimbledon matches against Tennys Sandgren, Horacio Zeballos, Kyle Edmund, Karen Khachanov, and Kei Nishikori. Djokovic then took his comeback to new heights by outlasting Rafael Nadal 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(9), 3-6, 10-8 in a semifinal thriller played on both Friday and Saturday.
The 12-time major champion may not have a full tank of gas for the final, but it’s safe to say that Anderson is also running low on energy. Not only did he famously survive John Isner 7-6(6), 6-7(5), 6-7(9), 6-4, 26-24 in the second-longest match in tournament history on Friday, but he also preceded that result by stunning Roger Federer 2-6, 6-7(5), 7-5, 6-4, 13-11 in the quarterfinals. Anderson has also advanced in SW19 with more straightforward defeats of Norbert Gombos, Andreas Seppi, Philipp Kohlschreiber, and Gael Monfils.
This is a nightmare matchup for Anderson, because Djokovic arguably wields the best service return in the game. Nadal probably would have been the 6’8” South African’s preferred opponent, because even though the Spaniard’s baseline game is every bit as good as Djokovic’s, his return of serve is not in the same ballpark. Thus Anderson would have had an easier time inducing short returns out of Nadal and dictating play on a more consistent basis.
And when Nadal is a more favorable matchup, that’s not a good thing for Anderson. After all, he got trounced by the world No. 1 in his only previous Grand Slam final at last summer’s U.S. Open. Another rough day for Anderson could be in the cards against a former world No. 1 who has won this event three times.
Pick: Djokovic in 3
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