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A20 SPORTS
Monday 15 July 2019

Djokovic bests Federer in 5th-

set tiebreaker at Wimbledon

By HOWARD FENDRICH the players has to lose,” This one was unlike any oth-
AP Tennis Writer Djokovic said. “It’s quite er, though. That’s because,
WIMBLEDON, England (AP) unreal.” while it was reminiscent of
— For nearly five tight, This triumph also earned Federer’s 16-14 fifth-set vic-
tense and terrific hours, Djokovic his 16th Grand tory over Andy Roddick in
Novak Djokovic and Roger Slam trophy overall, mov- the 2009 Wimbledon final,
Federer traded the lead, ing him closer to the only that score is no longer pos-
playing on and on and on men ahead of him in ten- sible: The All England Club
until an unprecedented nis history: Federer owns 20, altered its rule this year to
fifth-set tiebreaker was re- Rafael Nadal has 18. do away with never-end-
quired to settle their mem- “I gave it all I had,” Federer ing matches and institute
orable Wimbledon final. said. a tiebreaker at 12-all in a
In the end, it was Djokovic He has ruled grass courts deciding set.
who emerged victorious, since the early 2000s; he At one point during the fi-
coming back to edge Fe- has won Wimbledon eight nal set Sunday, Djokovic
derer 7-6 (5), 1-6, 7-6 (4), times dating to 2003, and asked chair umpire Da-
4-6, 13-12 (3) and become this was his record 12th mian Steiner whether the
the first man in 71 years to appearance in the title change called for the tie-
take home the trophy from match. breaker at 10-10. Later,
the All England Club after But Djokovic is now 3-0 when Djokovic held for an
Serbia’s Novak Djokovic kisses the trophy after defeating needing to erase champi- against Federer in finals at 11-10 lead, it was Steiner
Switzerland’s Roger Federer in the men’s singles final match of onship points. the place and 4-0 against who got confused, begin-
the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, Sunday, July
14, 2019. “Unfortunately in these him in five-setters any- ning to call out the score
Associated Press kinds of matches, one of where. as 11-9, before catching
himself.
“I respect whatever the
rule is,” Federer said when
asked what he thinks of the
altered setup. “So really, it
is what it is, you know?”
Federer and Djokovic
pushed each other to the
limit in what became as
much a test of focus and
stamina as it was about
skill.
It is destined to be dis-
cussed for years.
“I’ll try to forget,” joked
Federer, who is less than a
month shy of his 38th birth-
day and would have been
the oldest man to win a
Grand Slam title in the pro-
fessional era.
“It was a great match. It
was long. It had every-
thing. I had my chances.
So did he. I thought we
played some great tennis.
In a way, I’m very happy
with my performance, as
well,” Federer said during
the trophy ceremony. “But
Novak, it’s great. Congrat-
ulations, man. That was
crazy. Well done.”
First, it was Federer who
kept falling behind, then
coming back.
He twice trailed by a set
even though he came
quite close to winning
the match in three: Fe-
derer was two points from
grabbing the opening set
on seven occasions but
couldn’t do it; he was one
point from seizing the third,
but again came up short.q