London, July 15 : Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic on Sunday overpowered South Africa's Kevin Anderson 6-2, 6-2, 7-6 (7-3) in a lopsided Wimbledon final, taking home the trophy for the fourth time in his career.
Both players had reached the final round after surviving the two longest semifinal matches in Wimbledon's history. Djokovic needed just two hours and 16 minutes to beat a visibly-drained Anderson, reports Efe.
This win also marks a stunning return to form for Djokovic after struggling with a right elbow injury earlier this season.
Although he had to save two set points in the 10th game of the third set and another three in the 12th, Djokovic came out victorious after an overall great performance on English grass, where he had been forced to withdraw due to his elbow injury in the 2017 quarterfinals against Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic.
The Wimbledon champion in 2011, 2014 and 2015, Djokovic now has 13 Grand Slam titles, his most recent being the 2016 French Open, and has won 69 tournaments in total.
Djokovic is also just one Grand Slam title behind the United States' Pete Sampras, four behind Spain's Rafael Nadal - who he beat in Saturday's semifinal - and seven behind Switzerland's Roger Federer, who Anderson beat in the quarterfinal.
On Monday, world No. 21 Djokovic is set to return to the ATP top 10 for the first time since he fell to world No. 22 in May, an achievement that is likely sweetened by Wimbledon's victory check for 2.25 million pounds sterling (nearly $3 million).
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Visakhapatnam (PTI): India head coach Gautam Gambhir on Saturday came down heavily on theories doing the rounds on social media about split coaching, terming them "surprising" and asked those opinion-makers to stay "in their domain."
After India’s recent 0-2 Test series defeat against South Africa, some influential cricketing names, including an IPL team owner, asked the BCCI to consider appointing separate coaches for red-ball and white ball formats.
"Look, there were a lot of talks because the results didn't go in our favour (in Test series). But the most surprising thing is that not once did any media or journalist wrote that our first Test match (in Kolkata) was played without the captain (Shubman Gill), who didn't bat in both innings (because of a neck injury)," Gambhir said during the post-match press meet after India clinched the ODI series against SA 2-1.
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Gambhir said such opinion makers should refrain from making remarks that have no direct connection with on-field cricketing matters.
“Some people also said things that have nothing to do with cricket. An IPL team owner (Parth Jindal of Delhi Capitals on X) also wrote about split coaching.
“So this is surprising. It's very important for people to stay in their domain. Because if we don't go into someone's domain, then they also don't have the right to come into our domain,” Gambhir added.
Gambhir had also stated his achievements as the red-ball coach in the post-match press conference at Guwahati in what looked like a self-defence mechanism after a series defeat at home.
“I don't give excuses in press conferences. It doesn't mean that you don't show the facts in front of the world or the country. When you go through a transition and when you lose your captain, who is also your main batter in red-ball cricket against such a team (SA).
"Then obviously the results are difficult because you don't have that much experience in red ball cricket. And the surprising thing is that no one even talked about it. All the discussions about wickets, I don't know what all things were said," he noted.
