But Norrie, 26, rose to the challenge from the start. He started with high intensity and energy, imposing himself on the six-time champion and begging him to continue as he built an early lead. He was just beaten by a much better tennis player in the end. After a false start and a set deficit, Djokovic gradually held off Norrie before comfortably overcoming him as he won 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4. With his victory, Djokovic resumed making history after his first two Grand Slams were marred by a ouster from Australia and then the misfortune of drawing Rafael Nadal in the French Open quarter-finals. He has now reached his eighth career Wimbledon final, which puts him second on the men’s all-time list behind only Roger Federer’s 12. Now fighting for his 32nd grand slam final, a new all-time men’s record, Djokovic is one win away from becoming only the second player, also after Federer, to match what seemed like an impossible men’s record before from two decades: Pete Sampras’ seven Wimbledons. titles. Novak Djokovic struggled in the opening set. Photo: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian When his achievements were mentioned in his on-court interview, Djokovic enjoyed the applause and then shrugged: “Thank you very much, I appreciate that, but the work is not done.” Ahead of top seed Djokovic and his fourth consecutive Wimbledon title is Australia’s Nick Kyrgios, who reached his first grand slam final on Thursday after Nadal, the second seed, was forced to withdraw ahead of Friday’s scheduled match with abdominal injury. It will be a huge occasion. For Norrie, having spent much of the last 18 months climbing the ranks and establishing himself at the top of the game while still under the radar, his big steps often coming at events away from the public eye, this was his moment. On Wimbledon’s biggest stage, against one of the sport’s superstars, he had given himself the chance to show his skills. The audience was packed with people there to see and see him, from Sir Alex Ferguson to Wayne Rooney. On an oppressively hot day in London, Djokovic initially appeared much more nervous, making spraying errors while struggling with Norrie’s flat, low-bouncing backhand. Norrie constantly tested his patience, pulling him into long rallies and causing errors as he broke serve three times in the set. As Norrie served out the first set, he knocked down two aces, including his hardest serve of the tournament at 127 mph. Despite Norrie’s positive energy, Djokovic was terrible in the opening set. Then he recognized the pressure he felt even after being in this position so many times. “Of course I’ve had a lot of semi-finals, but it’s never easy to walk on the field. You have a lot of pressure, expectations from yourself and of course from others.” His improvements in the second set started with his serve as he hit his early service games well and then found more rhythm on his groundstrokes. He began to put Norrie under pressure in his own service games and at 4-3 to Djokovic, after a poor serve, Norrie sprayed a forehand wide on break point. As the momentum shifted, Djokovic surged forward, reeling off five games in a row to take an early break in the third set and saw it out with ease. Cameron Norrie had no answer to the Serb in the final sets. Photo: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian As the relentless pressure from Djokovic continued in the fourth set, Norrie did not let up. He audibly encouraged himself, cheering the crowd and chasing the last ball. But charged with taking bigger risks than usual and playing far from his own comfort zone, Norrie’s errors piled up and the huge gap between the 20-time grand slam champion and the first semi-finalist continued to grow until the end. As Djokovic sealed his victory, he blew a kiss to an annoying fan in the crowd, prompting a barrage of boos from the crowd. The cheers returned as he heaped praise on his fallen opponent: “Cameron didn’t have much to lose, he was playing the tournament of his life,” Djokovic said. “He’s a great player and I have a lot of respect for him.” As Norrie’s tournament draws to a close, this should be another pivotal moment in his career. He had arrived at Wimbledon seeking his first place in the fourth round at a grand slam tournament, a result that had eluded him for a while. Given the chance to go much further, he handled all the pressure very well as Britain’s top player at Wimbledon and showed both his mental toughness and the all-round improvements to his game that allowed him to flourish. Norrie has established himself on the biggest stages of the sport and has shown what he is capable of. The next challenge in his career is to ensure that this is not really the tournament of his life and to build a game that allows him to return to these stages again and again.
