These days, Novak Djokovic almost creates history with each victory. The top-ranked Serb accomplished this on Monday at Wimbledon.
Six-time All England Club winner Djokovic won his 80th match at the grass-court major by defeating Soonwoo Kwon on Centre Court with scores of 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. With it, he made history by becoming the first person to triumph in that many games in each of the four Grand Slam tennis competitions.
Djokovic was competing for the first time since his quarterfinal French Open loss to Rafael Nadal last month.
But on Monday, not everything went according to plan.
Kwon was able to choose his places with his booming forehand because the roof was closed due to intermittent rain. The match started to come together in the second set and even carried over into the third, but Djokovic stepped up his game and produced unstoppable tennis as usual in southwest London.
Djokovic is aiming for his seventh overall Wimbledon victory and has won the last three championships. With Pete Sampras and William Renshaw, he would tie for the second-most wins with that total. Only Roger Federer has more, with eight.
He would have 21 career titles with one more significant one. Federer has 20, while Nadal has 22.
Djokovic has won nine times at the Australian Open, where he has won many of his Grand Slam singles titles. However, he was unable to defend his championship in Melbourne this year due to COVID-19 vaccine requirements in Australia, which led to his deportation.
The Center Court crowd applauded his return to Wimbledon despite that problem.
Emma Raducanu entered Centre Court for the first time following Djokovic’s conclusion. The British player, 19, was competing at the All England Club for the first time since quitting her match in the fourth round a year ago. She won the US Open last year.
