Novak Djokovic won his seventh Wimbledon title and 21st Grand Slam crown with a four-set victory over Australia's Nick Kyrgios in Sunday's fiery men's singles final.
The defending champion maintained his grip on the crown with a 4-6 6-3 6-4 7-6 (7-3) success over Kyrgios, who had previously never lost to Djokovic.
Kyrgios began the match in an unorthodox calm and collected manner, but the remainder of the three-hour contest would be characterised by the first-time finalist continuously arguing with his box as Djokovic grew into the match.
The Serbian double-faulted with the first point of the final, which would be a sign of things to come in the first set, as an identical error handed Kyrgios the first break of the match in the fifth game.
The ever-aggressive Kyrgios unsurprisingly served and returned remarkably well in the opening exchanges, although his early attempt at an underarm serve did not come off as intended.
Djokovic managed to bring the final service game in the first set to deuce, but Kyrgios wrapped the opener up with an ace, which would not phase Djokovic one bit.
The 35-year-old had recovered from opening set defeats to Jannik Sinner and Cameron Norrie in the previous rounds, as well as winning his four-set final with Matteo Berrettini last year.
Djokovic had never broken Kyrgios before the SW19 final and needed a large chunk of help from the net in order to do so, but the Australian missed four opportunities to break as Djokovic served to level the match.
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The wildcard began remonstrating with his box as Djokovic began to found his groove, although he managed to save two break points to hold in the first game of the third set.
Crowd disruption soon took precedence, as at least one spectator was ejected from the stands before Kyrgios implored umpire Renaud Lichtenstein to remove another fan who had consumed "about 700 drinks".
Djokovic would eventually break for 5-4 and would serve for the set to move 2-1 up in the match, but not before Kyrgios blasted his box with another rant of: "40-0 and you relax! Every time! Why?! Say something!"
The Australian returned wide to hand Djokovic the third set and sarcastically clapped his box as he sat back down, but the fourth set remained on serve right up until the tie-break.
This time, it was Kyrgios's turn to double fault straight away and hand Djokovic the mini-break, and two wide efforts from the wildcard would allow Djokovic to storm into an early 4-1 lead.
Kyrgios managed to save two Championship points on serve, but the 27-year-old netted for one final time as Djokovic took the walk up to the Wimbledon trophy again.
"Yeah he is a bit of a god, I'm not going to lie. I thought I played well. Obviously to all the ball kids, the umpires, I know we have a tough relationship at times so thanks for putting up with it," Kyrgios said in his on-court interview. "I'm really happy with this result and maybe one day I'll be here again but I don't know about that."
Champion Djokovic added: "Nick, you'll be back. Not just in Wimbledon but in many finals. I never thought I'm going to say so many nice things about you, considering the relationship! It's officially a bromance."
Djokovic has now won four Wimbledon titles on the bounce, adding to his 2011, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2019 and 2021 triumphs on the grass, but there will be no change to the standings after Wimbledon was stripped of its ranking points due to their ban on Russian and Belarusian players.
Ben Knapton
