In the shadow of the Titans’ battle for the title – who is the greatest tennis player of all, the expectation was of course for the classic final at Wimbledon – Novak Djokovic against Rafael Nadal, but again the plans went wrong when the bull from Mallorca retired before the semi-finals due to injury. So at the end of the tournament we probably got the final that no one expected – Nick Kirius will meet the Serb tomorrow (Sunday, 16:00) for a battle for the whole box office, it will be the Australian’s first or the Joker’s 21st.
The 35-year-old Joker who came to the grass competition as the clear favorite to win (fourth in a row if and when) in the grass tournament lived up to expectations, but really did not lick honey on his way to the final, especially in the quarter-final against rising Yannick Sinner. Although not at his peak now and throughout the year, he will come to the game against Kirius as a favorite and as the one who is supposed to win for the seventh time at Wimbledon. The road should also be close to Roger Federer in the history books of London, but more importantly – not to allow Nadal (22) to escape the summit.
And a tennis player as big and ornate as Djokovic must bring with him some numbers, well: this will be Nola’s eighth final in London, he has only one loss – Andy Murray in 2013. Moreover with his victory (1: 3 in sets) over Cameron Nuri in the semi-finals, the Serb also became the tennis player to reach the most Grand Slam finals of his career, 32 in number and one more than the great Federer. As mentioned 20 of them he has already won.
For Kirius, the most controversial tennis player of the current era, this is of course a chance to make history with the first Grand Slam of his career. The Australian is known to be one of the most talented and quality players in the world round, such that if he did not fall on the mental side he would already have at least one major title in the closet, but always the in-and-out affair, injuries (retired during 11 different competitions) and instability prevented him from going all the way.
Ranked 40 in the world, which by the way was also fined the most times in the history of the game, failed time and time again on the mental side and has exceptional self-destruction, as he also defined it in the past. Anyway, the current reach of the final is of course his record achievement in his career, when until this year he never made it to the quarterfinals of the Grand Slam tournament, but at 27 and when the affair of violence against his ex hovers in the air he managed to go all the way in the glittering grass competition.
The timing at which he reaches the peak of his career is quite surprising, since in 2016 he had a great year (won three of his six titles) and was ranked at his peak in 13th place in the world, but always needs a little luck and this time everything connected to him in the current tournament. The ability of course, but it also happened a lot thanks to the side of the lottery, the dismissals and the various retirements of the top tennis players – with the retirement of Nadal of course and also that of Matteo Bartini (Corona) who was a senior candidate to win and certainly reach the final from this side of the semi-finals.
The two have met in the past twice in total, in both cases Kirius came out with his hand on the top (hard surface), but now the story will probably be completely different, as 5 years have passed. A lot has changed since then, especially on the part of the Serb who continued to take over the round along with Nadal while Kirius probably just went backwards and failed to realize the talent in those years. Anyway, the advantage for the 40th ranked will be in the freshness as he rested in the semi-final stage while the Serb faced the local Briton, Cameron Nuri.
Almost everything is in Novak’s hands, so Kirius will need his perfect day and his opponent’s mediocre day to surprise, including an excellent non-committed winner-error ratio, and of course first serve in high percentages. The Serb for his part is the best turf player since Federer’s decline and although he is far from at his peak this year, things depend on him, and certainly with the advantage on the mental side that has come back from almost every possible pit, so playing against him is literally playing against a wall, mentally and physically.
Nola has all the tools needed to be invincible on the grass, good and efficient submissions, exceptional returns, stability (mentally and physically as mentioned) and of course excellent network play, which has only gotten better in recent years. Kirius for his part will try to bring his crazy punches and win from the back line, which for sure the Australian always knows how to give a show and this time too he will try to steal the show so we will have an interesting final for sure. The first and surprising of the Australian and precisely at the age of 27 or 21 of Novak? We will know on Sunday evening.