Right well this is my last post on this year's Wimbledon and it will cover both men's and the ladies singles finals and who won the Venus Rosewater dish and also who won the Gentlemen singles trophy.
So starting with the ladies the final was between the world no.1 Serena Williams and the maiden finalist Garbine Muguruza of Spain. This promised to be quite a match especially given that Muguruza had already previously beaten Serena in straight sets at last year's French open, but that was in the 2nd round so this was a whole other deal altogether. As for the match itself well it wasn't quite the class we could hoped for although it was still quite entertaining and it began with Muguruza taking an early break and making her presence known in the match. However it wasn't long before Serena broke back and then restablished herself and at that point the cracks began to show in Muguruza as she was broken by Serena and lost the first set. In the 2nd set Serena really started to take control of the match as Muguruza seemingly soon found herself way out of her depth and she crumbled under the pressure and went a double break down with Serena up 5-1 to serve for the title. However nerves also played a part for Serena at this point and she ended up being broken back by Muguruza who then held her own service and more impressively played a great game to break Serena yet again to get back on serve. But in the end unfortunately for Muguruza that was as far as she could get and she surrendered her own serve from 0-40 down to hand Serena her 6th Wimbledon title and also complete the Serena slam with a 6-4, 6-4 victory.
This was actually quite a good match despite its short length of 83 minutes and it showed that Muguruza really is a player to watch in the future despite succumbing to the pressure in that last game. And if Muguruza can maintain that momentum in the future then she is sure to win a few majors herself as she certainly has the power and the game to do it. And it was something of a surprise that given Muguruza was primarily a clay court player that she was able to make the final of Wimbledon but it goes to show that she really is quite a player and no doubt we will be seeing more from her.
As for Serena well she proved yet again in this final that she is the undisputed World No.1 and now she is only one major away from equalling Stefi Graff's record of 22, which I'm sure Serena will want to put the record well beyond reach before she retires. And given her fitness and form I don't quite see Serena retiring anytime soon especially as there are only one or two players that can stay with her on a tennis court. And Serena will also no doubt target the US Open as well, the final slam of the season which would see Serena complete the calendar slam, which is something she is not done before in her career, which would put her even further into the stratosphere with the greats in the game (bit wanky but you get what I mean). And I personally think the only way anyway is going to win another major is if Serena beats herself in a match or if she retires but until then she can go on winning with virtually no one else to stop her.
Now for the men's final which was between two greats in the game Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer the current No.1 and No.2 which was a rematch of their epic encounter last year which went the distance and saw Novak triumph. So this year everything was on the line again for both player and Roger once again was determined to try and win a record 8th Wimbledon title with Novak looking to defend his title and claim a 3rd. As for the match was it quite the thriller of last year??? Well not quite but it came fairly close at times and still had its moments. As for the match itself it began with Roger coming out strong and breaking Novak, however Nole soon broke back himself and play went into a tiebreak where Novak asserted himself to dominate the breaker which saw Rog feebly surrender the set with a double fault. In the 2nd set play went by serve again with Roger having some opportunities along the way but the tiebreak itself was one of the best of the year, which saw momentum to and fro and finally saw the champion in Roger stave off several set points to go on claim the 2nd set 12-10 on the breaker. In the 3rd set however there was a rain delay with disrupted play and Roger then made the mistake of dropping serve and from here Novak took the two sets to one lead. And in the 4th set Nole took full control of the match as he broke Roger twice to seal the deal and claim his 3rd Wimbledon title with a 7-6, 6-7, 6-4, 6-3 win.
While this was a very entertaining finale it didn't quite scale the heights of last year's thriller but it did show that a year on how much more confident Novak Djokovic has become as a player as once he got his nose ahead in the match he never looked back. Roger after his incredible performance against Andy Murray in the semi finals was impressive at times in the match but he made too many unforced errors in the end and struggled to keep up the pace as the match went on. And this match really showed the gap between Novak and Roger and also the gulf between Novak and everyone else in terms of form as he really looks set (no pun intended) to dominate the men's game for the next few years.
And from here it has to be said that it will be difficult for most players to live with Novak from now on in matches and Roger, Stan and Andy are just about the only ones that can hang with Novak on a tennis court just now. And I also think it would fairly safe to say that I can't see anyone but Novak win the US Open this year, the only remaining major left this season unless he drops his form just a bit during Flushing meadows, which I very much doubt. Novak now also has won the last three meetings against Roger and it looks likely that he, like he has done against Andy, go on unbeaten against him as this guy is no stranger to winning streaks.
As for Roger well by reaching the Wimbledon final it still shows that he might have one more major left in him and going by his form leading into the final he looked to me like the surefire champion. But again you can never count out Novak Djokovic and in the end once the match became a physical contest it would always be Novak that would come out on top and in the end Roger couldn't quite cope with Djokovic's incredible defensive skills. But despite all that it still proved that Roger is very much a vital tennis player with a shot at winning another major before he retires, which I'm sure he won't do until he decides it time to stop.
So that's it for my look at Wimbledon 2015, which has been another excellent grand slam tournament which has seen some great matches either side of the net and it has proved that the current No.1's on both the men's and ladies sides of the net are still very much the No.1 in their sport. So I might be back soon with another post on the Davis cup tie between Great Britain and France at Queens club, which begins this weekend so I'll look forward to that.
Until then its bye for now.
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