Djokovic Advances to Wimbledon Final and Claims No. 1 Tennis Ranking
A 7-6(4), 6-2, 6-7(9), 6-3 victory over France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has seen Novak Djokovic advance to his first Wimbledon final as well as secure him the no. 1 ranking in men’s tennis when the rankings come out on Monday.
The win takes his 2011 record to 47-1 with the single loss coming at the hands of Roger Federer in the French Open semi-finals.
The athletic Tsonga got off to the best possible start by breaking his Serbian opponent in the first game of the match. Tsonga held serve until when it counted the most he could not hold when serving for the set at 5-4. He recovered from 0-40 to get to deuce before a double fault gave Djokovic a break point which he converted to go 5-5.
Tsonga made several unforced errors in the tie-break before losing it 7-4 to see the first set go to Djokovic who did well to come back after being a break down.
Djokovic followed on from the tie-break win by breaking Tsonga in the first game of the second set, he got a second break to go out to a 4-1 lead before holding serve twice more to secure the second set 6-2.
In a tremendous game that saw both players diving around the court Djokovic got another break in the third game of set no. 3. Djokovic held twice more before Tsonga hit back in the eighth game to level the scores at 4-4.
The set moved into a tie-break that would see Tsonga fight off two match points before winning a thriller 11-9 to keep his Wimbledon dreams alive.
Djokovic opened the fourth set with a service game held to love followed by a break to love. Tsonga seemed to be a bit off his game after the exciting breaker.
Tsonga could not force a break despite being up 30-0 in the fifth game. After Djokovic served out the game that gave him a 6-3 win in the fourth set he sunk to his knees before getting a hug from Tsonga.
He had made it through a tough match to have a shot at a Wimbledon title and he also knew he is the new no. 1.
Djokovic will become the 25th player to reach No. 1 when the rankings come out on Monday. He becomes the first player other than Nadal or Roger Federer to reach the top spot since Andy Roddick held the ranking for 13 weeks from 3 November 2003 to 2 February 2004. Djokovic is the first Serbian player to achieve the milestone.
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