This weekend was a feast for sports lovers on TV, there were 4 major sports events that were televised all over the world. Ladies Singles Tennis finals at Wimbledon, Copa America final(football tournament of American continent) were held on Saturday and Men Singles Tennis final at Wimbledon and Euro Cup final (football tournament of Europian continent) on Sunday. I am not very enthusiastic about the game of football but still follow the major tournaments, but I love watching the Tennis tournaments off Tennis. Now coming back to these matches :
1 Wimbledon- Ladies Singles final- this year it so happened that both the finalist, Ashleigh Barty, and Karolina Pliskova, were playing their first final at Wimbledon, although Barty had won one grand slam earlier in 2019 at the French Open. The match went to the full distance of three sets, was very exciting till the middle of the third set but in the end, Barty showed her killer instinct and triumphed with the scoreline of 6-3, 6-7,6-3.
2 Copa America Final- The match was held at Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil between Argentina and the home team Brazil. The world-class player Lionel Messi of Argentina was playing his 4th Copa America final and Argentina desperately wanted to win the tournament for Messi, because Argentina with Messi in the team never won World Cup or Copa America tournaments. Chances also came Brazil way but they could not co0nvert them to goal. Angel Di Maria scored Argentina’s only goal of the match in the first half which gave them 1-0 victory.
3 Euro Cup Final- This match was played at Wembley stadium in London, England between Italy and the home team England. The match went to the full distance of extra time and penalty shootouts. England had s dream start with a superb goal after 2 minutes, and were 1-0 at halftime. Italy equalised in the 2nd half and the match went into extra time of 30 minutes but both teams were locked at 1-1. In the penalty shootouts, Italy won by a 3-2 margin and became champion.
Surprisingly in both the finals home team lost, which led to gloom in Brazil and England, as both these were hot favourite to win the respective tournaments.
4 Now coming to last final ie Men singles final at Wimbledon. This was played between Serbia’s Novak Djokovic and Italy’s Matteo Berrettini. In the tennis world, all eyes were on Djokovic, as he was aiming for his 20th grand slam title, which could have made him to share the highest grand slam titles record of 20 titles with Roger Federar and Rafael Nadal. In a very entertaining and hard-hitting final, where both players were at their fighting best. In the end experience of Djokovic prevailed and he won in 4 sets in a tightly contested final with the scoreline of 6-7, 6-4, 6-4 and 6-3 in approx three and half hours, and equalled the record of maximum grand slam titles.
Now Djokovic has won his 20th grand slam title after playing in 30 grand slam finals, Federer took 31 finals and Nadal took 28 finals. But the problem is Federer will be 40 years old next month, and it is very unlikely that he will win any more grand slam titles. Nadal’s problem is he is mainly a clay court player as he has won 13 French Open titles but this year he lost to Djokovic in the French Open semi-finals, he is now 35 years old and has become injury-prone, he might win one or two grand slam titles in near future. Now at 34 Djokovic is extremely fit and he might play for at least three/four years more, and it is highly possible that he might win more grand slam titles and register the record of highest grand slam titles in his name.
Now let us see the grand slam finals results of Djokovic-
1US Open 2007- lost to Roger Federer 6-7, 6-7, 4-6.
2 Australian Open 2008-beat To Wilfred T Songa 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 7-6.
3 US Open 2010-lost to Rafael Nadal 4-6, 7-5, 4-6, 2-6.
4 Australian Open 2011 beat Andy Murray 6-4, 6-2, 6-3.
5 Wimbledon 2011- beat Rafael Nadal 6-4, 6-1, 1-6, 6-3
6 US Open 2011- beat Rafael Nadal 6-2, 6-4.6-7, 6-1.
7 Australian Open 2012- beat Rafael Nadal 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7, 7-5
8 French Open 2012-lost to Rafael Nadal 4-6,3-6, 6-2, 5-7
9 US Open 2012- lost to Andy Murray 6-7, 5-7, 6-2, 6-3, 2-6.
10 Australian Open 2013- beat Andy Murray 6-7, 7-6, 6-3, 6-2.
11 Wimbledon 2013-lost to Andy Murray 4-6, 5-7, 4-6
12 US Open 2013- lost to Rafael Nadal 2-6, 6-3, 4-6, 6-1
13 French Open 2014 – lost to Rafael Nadal 6-3, 5-7, 2-6, 6-4.
14 Wimbledon 2014- beat Roger Federer 6-7, 6-4, 7-6, 5-7, 6-4.
15 Australian Open 2015- beat Andy Murray 7-6, 6-7, 6-3, 6-0.
16 French Open- lost to Stan Wawrinka 6-4, 4-6, 3-6, 4-6.
17 Wimbledon 2015 – beat Roger Federer 7-6, 6-7, 6-4, 6-3.
18 US Open 2015- beat Roger Federer 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4.
19 Australian Open 2016- beat Andy Murray 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-4.
20 French Open 2016- beat Andy Murray 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-4
21 US Open 2016- lost to Stan Wawrinka 7-6, 4-6, 5-7, 3-6
22 Wimbledon 2018 –beat Kevin Anderson 6-2, 6-2, 7-6.
23 US Open 2018- beat Juan Martin del Petro 6-3, 7-6, 6-3
24 Australian Open 2019 –beat Rafael Nadal 6-3,6-2, 6-3
25 Wimbledon 2019- beat Roger Federer 7-6, 1-6, 7-6, 4-6 13-12
26 Australian Open 2020– beat Dominic Thiem 6-4, 4-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4
27 French Open 2020- lost to Rafael Nadal 0-6, 2-6, 5-7.
28 Australian Open 2021- beat Danill Medvedev 7-5, 6-2, 6-2.
29 French Open 2021 –beat Stefanos TseTsepas 6-7, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4.
30 Wimbledon 2021-beat Matteo Berrettini 6-7, 6-4, 6-4, 6-3.
In the 1st 10 finals, he won 6.
In the 2nd 10 finals, he won 6
In the last 10 finals, he won 8
What an achievement in the last 14 years, won 1st grand slam in 2008 and last in 2021, and still the year is not over. His fans are hoping that he will also win US Open this year to complete the calendar grand slam.
Waiting for your reviews and comments.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
12th July 2021
Tejinder Singh Sethi
Well compiled
R. N. Mungale.
Very good information.