Novak Djokovic, Simona Halep Are Wimbledon Champions - Mondays with Bob Greene

Mondays with Bob Greene

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Wimbledon

Men’s singles: Novak Djokovic beat Roger Federer 7-6 (5) 1-6 7-6 (4) 4-6 13-12 (3)

Women’s singles: Simona Halep beat Serena Williams 6-2 6-2

Men’s doubles: Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah beat Nicolas Mahut and Edouard Roger-Vasselin 6-7 (5) 7-6 (5) 7-6 (6) 6-7 (5) 6-3

Women’s doubles: Hsieh Su-wei and Barbora Strycova beat Gabriela Dabrowski and Xu Yifan 6-2 6-4

Mixed doubles: Ivan Dodig and Latisha Chan beat Robert Lindstedt and Jelena Ostapenko 6-2 6-3

Boys’ singles: Shintaro Mochizuki beat Carlos Gimeno Valeno 6-2 6-2

Girls’ singles: Daria Snigur beat Alexa Noel 6-4 6-4

Boys’ doubles: Jonas Forejtek and Jiri Lehecka beat Liam Draxl and Govind Nanda 7-5 6-4

Girls’ doubles: Savannah Broadus and Abigail Forbes beat Kamilla Bartone and Oksana Sclekhmeteva 7-5 5-7 6-2

Men’s Wheelchair singles: Gustavo Fernandez beat Shingo Kunieda 4-6 6-3 6-2

Women’s Wheelchair singles: Aniek Van Koot beat Diede De Groot 6-4 4-6 7-5

Men’s Wheelchair doubles: Joachim Gerard and Stefan Olsson beat Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid 6-4 6-2

Women’s Wheelchair doubles: Diede De Groot and Aniek Van Koot beat Marjolein Buis and Giulia Capocci 6-1 6-1

Quad Wheelchair singles: Dylan Alcott beat Andy Lapthorne 6-0 6-2

Quad Wheelchair doubles: Dylan Alcott and Andy Lapthorne beat Koji Sugeno and David Wagner 6-2 7-6 (4)

OTHER

Misaki Doi beat Danka Kovinic 6-4 6-4 to win the Swedish Open in Båstad, Sweden

Katarina Zavatska beat Ulrikke Eikeri 6-4 6-4 to win the Grand Est Open in Contrexeville, France

SAYINGS

“I think that if this is not the most exciting final then definitely it’s in the top two or three of my career against one of he greatest players of all time, Roger, who I respect.” – Novak Djokovic, after edging Roger Federer in the longest Wimbledon final ever played

“It was long and it had everything. I had answers, so did he, and we played some great tennis.” – Roger Federer.

“I’m very sure that was the best match of my life, and also on grass against her is never easy. So, I’m really proud of my game of today and the whole tournament.” – Simona Halep, following her straight-set demolition of Serena Williams to win the women’s singles title.

“She played out of her mind. I was like a deer in headlights.” – Serena Williams, after losing the Wimbledon women’s final to Simona Halep.

“We just won Wimbledon for Colombia. It’s huge. I don’t know how to explain it, but it’s huge for our country. I hope everybody enjoys us.” – Juan Sebastian Cabal and he and Robert Farah became the first Colombian players to win Grand Slam title.

“It’s a fairytale. It has been two weeks of amazing moments I will never forget.” – Barbora Strycova, who teamed with Hsieh Su-wei for her first Grand Slam doubles title and also took over as world number one in the WTA doubles rankings.

“Roger Federer, I love watching him on TV, yeah. I don’t want to copy him, but I love watching him.” – Shintaro Mochizuki, who won the Junior Boys singles title.

“It’s definitely going to go down as one of my favorite matches to look back at because it’s Rafa, it’s at Wimbledon, the crowd was into it.” – Roger Federer, on his semifinal win over Rafael Nadal.

“It’s sad because for me I know chances are not forever.” – Rafael Nadal, after losing to Roger Federer in their 40th career meeting,

“I just have to figure out a way to win a final. Maybe it is playing other finals outside of Grand Slams would be really helpful just to kind of get in the groove so by the time I get to a Grand Slam final I’m kind of used to what to do and how to play.” – Serena Williams, who has now lost three Grand Slam tournament finals since returning to tennis after the birth of her daughter.

SUPER SERB

When the longest Wimbledon final ever played was over, Novak Djokovic was the winner. “I’m just obviously thrilled and overjoyed with emotions to be sitting here in front of you as a winner,” Djokovic said. “It was one shot away from losing the match, as well. This match had everything. It could have gone easily his way.” Roger Federer, at 37 bidding to become the oldest Grand Slam champion, hit 25 aces to 10 for Djokovic. Federer finished with 218 points, 14 more than his Serbian opponent. And in the fifth set, Federer had two match points at 8-7 40-15. It wasn’t enough as Djokovic triumphed in a marathon title match that lasted a record 4 hours, 57 minutes. He became the first man in 71 years to win the title from match points down as he pulled level with Bjorn Borg as a five-time Wimbledon champion. “Unfortunately, in this type of match someone has to lose,” the winner said. “It is quite unreal to be two match points down to come back and strange to play a tiebreak at 12-12.” He won that tiebreak 7-3, just like he won the first-set tiebreak 7-5 and the third-set tiebreak 7-4. Djokovic has won nine of his last 11 matches against Federer and three of their four Wimbledon meetings. He is now just four Grand Slam titles shy of the all-time record of 20 held by Federer, who is five years older. “I hope I give some other people at 37 the feeling it is not over yet,” Federer said. Djokovic’s win means the Big Three of men’s tennis – Djokovic, Federer and Rafael Nadal – have won the last 11 Grand Slam tournament titles.

SPARKLING SIMONA

With such a dominating performance, Simona Halep made sure her Wimbledon victory was about her and not about Serena Williams failing to win a record-equaling 24^th Grand Slam tournament title. “I have never played a better match,” Halep said after crushing her opponent. Williams agreed. “I was like a deer ion the headlights,” Williams said. It was the second career Grand Slam tournament title for the 27-year-old Romanian, who won Roland Garros in 2018. And she was almost perfect, making just three unforced errors against 26 by Williams. Eight minutes into the match, Halep led 3-0 and Williams had lost her service twice. By the time Halep led 4-0, Williams had won just six points. Halep had beaten Williams just once in 10 previous meetings, but all three of their previous Grand Slam encounters had gone the distance. This time, Halep didn’t need more than two sets. “My mom said when I was 10 that if I want to do something in tennis I have to play in the final at Wimbledon,” Halep said. “I wanted this badly. I said at the start of the tournament that one of my motivations was to win and become a lifetime member of the club.” The final was a fitting climax to Halep’s fortnight. She beat fellow former world number one Victoria Azarenka, ended the improbable run of teen phenom Coco Gauff and eliminated two players who led in their head-to-heads, Zhang Shuai and eighth-seeded Elina Svitolina. “I felt my legs that are very soft after I won the last point” in the title match, Halep said. “I didn’t know actually how to react. I just did natural what it came in my inside. It’s tough to describe the moment. You just feel light, you feel everything is beautiful, and you just try to enjoy.”

SWINGING TOGETHER

Barbora Strycova knew who to thank when she won her first Grand Slam tournament title: her partner Hsieh Su-wei. “I can’t thank (Hsieh) enough to help me pick up number one,” Strycova said. Noting the victory also boosts her to number one in the WTA Doubles World rankings for the first time in her career. “It feels unreal. It’s amazing. It was my goal at the beginning of this year, that I want to become number one. It was a really big goal. It happens right now, especially here at this moment, this tournament, my favorite place.” For Hsieh, who was ranked number one in the world in doubles in 2014, earned her third major women’s doubles title, teaming with Peng Shuai at Wimbledon in 2013 and Roland Garros in 2014. Hsieh and Strycova didn’t lose a set in their rush to the crown. In the final, they won over 70 percent of the points off their opponents’ second serves, and they converted four of their six break points in the match. “From the first moment we step on the court together, we just laughed and we just enjoyed,” Strycova said of their fortnight. “We kept it through the whole tournament. I think that was also the biggest key (why) we were playing the way we played.”

SOUTH AMERICAN TRIUMPH

Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah became the first players from Colombia to win a Grand Slam tournament title when they outlasted Frenchmen Nicolas Mahut and Edouard Roger-Vasselin in a marathon that lasted four minutes short of five hours. With the victory come the spoils: Cabal and Farah’s victory makes the pair number one in the world for the first time. It is the sixth consecutive Grand Slam tournament where the men’s doubles title has been won by a pair of players from the same country.

SPLITTING UP THE SPOILS

For the second straight Grand Slam tournament, Latisha Chan and Ivan Dodig won the mixed doubles. Chan was playing her first Wimbledon final in any discipline, while Dodig was runner-up in men’s doubles with Marcelo Melo at Wimbledon in 2015. It was Chan’s fourth Grand Slam title overall, having teamed with Martina Hingis to win the 2017 US Open women’s doubles, then winning Roland Garros the last two years with Dodig. In the Wimbledon final, Chan and Dodig raced out to a 5-0 lead before Jelena Ostapenko and Robert Lindstedt could find their footing. Although Chan was broken while serving for the set, it was just a minor delay in their rush to the title.

SET FOR LONDON

The Wimbledon champion, Novak Djokovic, has joined the Roland Garros winner, Rafael Nadal as a qualifier for the 2019 Nitto ATP Finals, which will be held in London in November. It is the 12^th time Djokovic has qualified for the season-ending event, which features the top eight singles players and the top eight doubles teams. Djokovic will be seeking a sixth ATP Finals title, which would tie him with Roger Federer.

SWEEPS TITLES

Misaki Doi captured both titles at the Swedish Open, while Danka Kovinic was the losing in both events. After the Japanese left-hander won her second career WTA 125K series singles title by beating Kovinic, Doi returned to the clay court with partner Natalia Vikhlyantseva to capture the doubles, stopping Kovinic and Alexa Guarachi. Doi earned her victories. En route to the singles final she eliminated fourth-seeded Mona Barthel, seventh-seeded Elena Rybakina and eighth-seeded Aleksandra Krunic. It was Doi’s first singles title in three years.

STEADY STROKIN’

Novak Djokovic set a Wimbledon record before he reached the final of the year’s third Grand Slam tournament. In his semifinal against Roberto Bautista Agut, the top-ranked Serb won the longest point ever recorded at Wimbledon. With the two locked in a third-set baseline battle, Djokovic smacked a winning backhand down the line with the 45^th shot of the rally. Wimbledon began keeping track of number of strokes in a point in 2005. Other than the length, the rally wasn’t anything special. Both players seemed content with just hitting the ball back over the net and waiting for the other to make a mistake. The previous Wimbledon record was 42 strokes, set in match between Jarkko Nieminen and Dmitry Tursunov in 2006. The women’s record is 39 strokes, set in 2007 in a match between Nathalie Dechy and Elena Dementieva.

SNIGUR A CHAMPION

Daria Snigur ended her junior career with a bang. The 17-year-old from Ukraine won the Wimbledon junior girls title, besting American Alexa Noel in the final. “I finish my junior career here (with) very good feelings,” Snigur said. “It’s very good for me, for my career, I think, because I won (two International Tennis Federation) women’s tournaments. I want to win a Grand Slam, of course. It was my dream.” Snigur is the first Ukrainian to win the Wimbledon junior girls since Kateryna Bondarenko in 2004. She is the fourth Ukrainian to win a junior Grand Slam singles title overall, joining Bondarenko, Elina Svitolina (2010 French Open) and Marta Kostyuk (2017 Australian Open).

SINO STAR

Shintaro Mochizuki became the first Japanese player to win a boy’s Grand Slam tournament title when he beat Carlos Gimeno Valero of Spain at Wimbledon. Playing in just his third grass-court tournament, the 16-year-old joins 1969 girls singles champion Kazuko Sawamatsu in winning at the grass-court Grand Slam event. Mochizuki said he has had a lot of help from 2014 US Open finalist Kei Nishikori. “He’s really nice, Mochizuki said. “He gives me a lot of advice. Like sometimes I practice with him. I learn from him a lot. Yeah, he’s smart.”

SELLING TROPHIES

Trying to get out of debt, Boris Becker raised more than (USD) $854,712 (£680,000) in an online auction sale of his trophies and memorabilia. The 51-year-old German was declared bankrupt by a British court in 2017. The company dealing with his bankruptcy auctioned 82 items from his collection, including his 1989 US Open trophy, which attracted the highest bid of USD $188,854 (£150,250). Other items auctioned off included a replica of the Davis Cup winner’s trophy, Becker’s International Tennis Hall of Fame ring as well as watches and playing clothes. Becker won six Grand Slam tournament singles titles, including three at Wimbledon, and a doubles gold medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

SPANISH PARTY

Once his Wimbledon ended, Roberto Bautista Agut was finally able to get going with the rest of his life. Apparently not expecting to be playing in the latter rounds at Wimbledon, Bautista Agut was scheduled to be in Ibiza, Spain, during the second week of the grass-court Grand Slam tournament for his bachelor party. His friends relocated the party to London when Bautista Agut reached his first Grand Slam semifinal, where he lost in four sets to eventual champion Novak Djokovic. “We had everything reserved from Wednesday or Thursday until Sunday. They all knew before there was a small chance for me to be here, playing in the quarterfinals,” Bautista Agut said. “I think they really had a good plan. They spent Wednesday in Ibiza. They came to watch a good match, the semifinal of Wimbledon. They came yesterday as a surprise. It was really nice to have them in the crowd. They support me so much.”

SHARED PERFORMANCES

Båstad: Misaki Doi and Natalia Vikhlyantseva beat Danka Kovinic and Alexa Guarachi 7-5 6-7 (4) 10-7 (match tiebreak)

Contrexeville: Georgina Garcia-Perez and Oksana Kalashnikova beat Anna Danilina and Eva Wacanno 6-3 6-3

SURFING

Newport: https://www.halloffameopen.com/

Umag: https://www.croatiaopen.hr/

Båstad: https://men.swedishopen.org/

Nur-Sultan: https://ktf.kz/

Bucharest: http://www.brdbucharestopen.ro/en/

Lausanne: https://www.ladiesopenlausanne.ch/

Hamburg: http://www.hamburg-open.com/

Atlanta: https://www.bbtatlantaopen.com/