Novak Djokovic reached his eight Wimbledon men’s singles final on Friday after beating Great Britain’s Cameron Norrie 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4, setting up a summit clash with Nick Kyrgios on Sunday.
The match was the only men’s singles semifinal to be played at Wimbledon this year after Rafael Nadal pulled out of the tournament after his quarterfinal win due to an abdominal injury.
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Djokovic though had to put in the work to overcome the home hope in two hours and 34 minutes.
“He was the better player in the first set,” said Djokovic during his on-court interview.
“Semis of a Slam, I played them a lot, but there is always pressure, from yourself and from the outside.”
The 20-time Grand Slam champion, who is a three-time defending champion, lost the opening set by two breaks, losing 6-2 while trying to get used to Norrie’s unorthodox and tricky groundstrokes. The Serb came back strong in the second set though, challenging the ninth seed’s service game before eventually finding a break when Norrie was serving at 3-4. That was during a run in which the top seed won eight of nine games - taking a commanding 5-1 lead in the third set.
Djokovic used that momentum to get the early break in the third and fourth sets to put himself on course to getting over the line.
This will be Djokovic’s 32nd Grand Slam final - more than any other male player in the Open Era. He also became the sixth male player to reach four or more consecutive Wimbledon finals - joining the likes of Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe, Boris Becker, Pete Sampras and Roger Federer. Yet he asserted that the stat is not of much consequence to him.
“The job is not finished,” said Djokovic, who is chasing his fourth consecutive Wimbledon title.
On Sunday, he will come up against a completely different type of player in Kyrgios. The mercurial Australian is as flamboyant in his play as he is vocal on court. But he will be well rested since he received a bye in the semifinal.
He also has a 2-0 record over Djokovic. But in his first Grand Slam final, he’ll be coming up against a man who has won the grass-court Slam six times.
“One thing is for sure, there will be a lot of fireworks emotionally from both sides,” Djokovic added.
“He is playing freely, has a big game and a lot of power in his shots. I’ve never won a set off him - hopefully it can be different this time. He doesn’t have much to lose.”