The stories of stirring comebacks from two of Wimbledon’s finest champions, yet tales which had very different conclusions, proved the centrepiece of a dramatic and surprise-laden 2018 Championships that were worthy of adorning the 150th anniversary of the All England Club.
One climaxed with a rejuvenated Novak Djokovic declaring he’d “risen like a phoenix” to win the Gentlemen’s Singles Championship for a fourth time against Kevin Anderson, while the other witnessed the magnificent Angelique Kerber foiling the last chapter of the fairytale for 36-year-old Serena Williams, making an extraordinary return to her Wimbledon domain after the birth of her first child.
These 132nd Championships were a sun-drenched delight, featuring SW19’s own amazing shoot-outs, sensational early exits and, naturally, a German victor against the backdrop of a country falling feverishly for England’s dramatic run to the semi-finals of the FIFA World Cup.
It was the Fortnight that saw the longest-ever, tallest-ever, maddest-ever Centre Court encounter between Anderson and John Isner, followed by one of its most magnificent collisions between Djokovic and Rafael Nadal. We also witnessed eight-time gentlemen’s singles champion Roger Federer dethroned, almost unthinkably, after holding a match point for a straight sets win over Anderson in the quarters.
Nothing in the 2018 edition, though, captured the imagination quite like the return of seven-time champion Williams, who suffered blood clots on the lungs and nearly died after four operations in the aftermath of a traumatic childbirth. What a delight to see her back, full of the joys of motherhood, showing baby Alexis Olympia her field of dreams, Centre Court, roaring around it as if the lioness had never been away.
The draw for this 125th edition of the Ladies’ Championship even opened up with extraordinary benevolence for her as the top seeds tumbled around her in daily calamities.
On Monday, Sloane Stephens; Tuesday, Petra Kvitova; Wednesday’s child Caroline Wozniacki was full of woe about flying ants and Ekaterina Makarova’s flying forehands. Thursday’s double sensation saw champion Garbiñe Muguruza’s reign ended by Belgium’s Alison Van Uytvanck while Johanna Konta ran into Dominika Cibulkova, a feisty second round roadblock no contender would want.
On Friday, last year’s finalist, 38-years-young Venus Williams succumbed to Kiki Bertens and Saturday saw Simona Halep, world No.1, bewitched, bothered and bewildered by Chinese Taipei wizard Su-Wei Hsieh, who couldn’t stop smiling nor indeed making us all smile with her unique “Su-Wei style” fed on a diet of our finest lobster and strawberries.
So, unprecedentedly, none of the top 10 seeds made it to the quarter-finals while Serena, the niftiest world No.181 anyone had ever seen, made it for the loss of just one set, to set up a final rematch with her 2016 victim Kerber.
The final was a starry occasion as the Centre Court’s ‘queen mother’ was watched by HRH the Duchess of Cambridge and HRH the Duchess of Sussex as she sought the 24th Grand Slam singles title that would have equalled Margaret Court’s all-time record.
Yet it was Kerber who rewrote the script, reminding us of her own splendid comeback story following a 2017 slump. “Angie played out of her mind,” conceded Williams, after being beaten 6-3 6-3 in 65 one-sided minutes by the first German ladies’ singles champion since Steffi Graf in 1996.
To all the moms out there, I was playing for you today, and I tried,” Serena said, voice quivering with emotion, on court. Even the magnanimous 30-year-old champion Kerber, celebrating her third Grand Slam triumph, recognised this moment to acknowledge her as “such an inspiration for all of us.” Serena reckoned she was no ‘Supermom’ but Angie and everyone wanted her to know she’d been our hero.
The gentlemen’s tournament, sadly, lost Andy Murray, who pulled out on the eve of competition “with a heavy heart”, not quite ready for the fray as he continued his comeback from hip surgery. Instead, he offered lip surgery, dissecting matches from the BBC commentary box in a style that the nation voted tongue-in-cheek was marginally less boring than Tim Henman’s.
The new British No.1 Kyle Edmund filled the void admirably until he ran into Djokovic in the third round. Straight after England had beaten Sweden in the World Cup quarter-final, the Yorkshireman was carried to the first set on a tide of raw home crowd emotion only for a ferociously indignant ‘Nole’ to douse the fire.
Federer had been, well, uniquely Federesque, not having dropped serve once all tournament until the 6ft 8in Anderson left the champion “hurting” and ruing his “blown chances” on No.1 Court. If we thought the South African was extraordinarily resilient, it was as nothing to the way he then ousted 6ft 10in Isner in a six hours 36 minute collision of the giants.
Poor marathon man Isner, he of the crazy 70-68 victory over Nicolas Mahut back in 2010, must have felt Centre Court had become his new room 101. Not even a new tournament record of 214 aces could console him.
The Wimbledon plaque-maker was finally spared a new job when Anderson at last prevailed 7-6(6) 6-7(5) 6-7(9) 6-4 26-24 with the help of one bit of magic at 24-24 when he dropped his racket while falling over, yet somehow picked it up to scramble a left-handed return that helped him win the point. Quite incredible.
Yet so too were countless points in the other semi between Djokovic and Nadal, who had already won one wondrous five-setter with Juan Martin del Potro in the quarters. Five and a quarter hours of unrelenting, impassioned quality under the Centre Court roof gave it the feel of the real final.
Alas, Anderson, struggling physically, started so creakily in the actual final that Djokovic completely outclassed him for two sets before the Johannesburg giant finally found and roused himself in the third. Too belatedly, though, as the Serb closed out a third set tie-break with all his old machine-like efficiency to prevail 6-2, 6-2, 7-6(3).
On a landmark weekend for seasoned players - all four singles finalists were over 30 - Djokovic wasn't the only repeat name on Wimbledon’s roll of honour. In the absence of his injured twin Bob, 40-year-old Mike Bryan found a new partner Jack Sock to help him lift the gentlemen’s doubles title and equal John Newcombe’s record of 17 Grand Slam doubles crowns.
Barbara Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova won the equivalent ladies’ doubles crown, five years since winning the junior doubles here but Jamie Murray’s bid to take a third mixed doubles crown with a third different A-list partner, Victoria Azarenka - or ‘Muzzarenka’ as they were quickly christened - was foiled in the final by Alexander Peya and Nicole Melichar.
Sweden’s Stefan Olsson and Dutch master Diede de Groot, who also won the ladies’ doubles with Yui Kamiji, retained their wheelchair singles titles as did Britain’s Gordon Reid and Alfie Hewett, gentlemen’s wheelchair doubles champions for the third successive year.
We also saw two exciting new junior champions, Poland’s 17-year-old Iga Swiatek and 16-year-old Tseng Chun Hsin, of Chinese Taipei, while very much hoping that the unseeded 16-year-old Jack Draper, beaten in the boys’ final by the world No.1 Tseng, would be flying the Union flag at SW19 for years to come.
To mark the 50th anniversary of Open tennis, though, the most fitting finale to these fine Championships was to see Djokovic, one of the great champions of this era, beaming across at his wife Jelena and three-year-old son Stefan on Centre Court, feeling almost like a man and a player reborn with a 13th Grand Slam to his name and a dream, like Serena’s, of many more to come.
For two years, his career had slumped from its giddiest of heights, injuries and surgery, off-court personal issues, loss of confidence and form all having contributed to “moments of doubt, of frustration, disappointment, where you're questioning whether you want to keep it going.”
Yet here he was, on his victory procession through the All England Club being congratulated by the Duke of Cambridge and another four-time winner Rod Laver, who told him: “Four times! You can have whatever you want!” Djokovic smiled broadly in response, again looking every inch the world champion of tennis.