Novak Djokovic defeats Kyrgios to win fourth straight Wimbledon title, 21st Grand Slam

Novak Djokovic fought back from a set down to defeat Nick Kyrgios and claim the 2022 Wimbledon title in four sets on Centre Court at the All England Club. It was his fourth successive Wimbledon title and seventh overall.

Having been awarded a walk-over in the semi-final following Rafael Nadal’s quarterfinal injury, Kyrgios was able to reach his first-ever Grand Slam final. His opponent was the vastly experienced Djokovic who was set for his 35th final.

Kyrgios started the match strongly against the competition’s top seeded player, and went on to win the first set against Djokovic 6-4. After losing the first set, Djokovic found his rhythm and quickly recovered to win the second set 6-3. It was more of the same in the third set as the Serbian national claimed a 6-4 win before holding off a spirited fight from Kyrgios in the fourth set to win the match 4-6 6-3 6-4 7-6.

Djokovic has now won four successive Wimbledon titles and has won the competition seven times in his career, equalling Pete Sampras’ haul. He still remains one title shy of Roger Federer’s record eight titles at the All England Club. He has now won 21 Grand Slam titles, with his Wimbledon triumph taking him one above Federer on 20, and one behind Nadal on 22.

Despite winning Wimbledon, Novak Djokovic would drop to seventh in the world when the new rankings are released on Monday. This is as a result of Wimbledon being stripped of ranking points. The points accrued by Djokovic in 2021 and 2022 at Wimbledon would be deducted, leaving him in seventh place in the men’s tennis rankings.

The Serb will not play at the US Open, the final Grand Slam of the year, due to his refusal to get vaccinated.