“He is serving the best that anyone has served since Pete Sampras,” Mats Wilander expects Nick Kyrgios to go big in the Wimbledon final against Novak Djokovic
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Nick Kyrgios and Novak Djokovic
The lineup for the 2022 Wimbledon Final is set and fans couldn’t have asked for a more heated one. 3-time defending champion Novak Djokovic will lock horns against Australian showman Nick Kyrgios, who will be playing his maiden grand slam final. Kyrgios has scripted history by becoming the first unseeded player to reach a Wimbledon final in more than 15 years while Djokovic hasn’t lost a match on the centre court in almost 5 years.
While it is a given that Djokovic will start as the favorite to win, Kyrgios holds a positive 2-0 H2H record against him and can defeat anyone on a given day. 7-time grand slam champion Mats Wilander spoke about the Men’s Singles final on Eurosport and said that Djokovic is the obvious favorite on paper, but Kyrgios is serving maybe the best since Pete Sampras. He trusts Djokovic to return Kyrgios’ serve but doesn’t know how will he manage it.
“Obviously, Novak Djokovic is the favorite on paper, but Nick Kyrgios is serving maybe the best that anyone has served since Pete Sampras,” Wilander said. “It’s very hard to understand how Novak Djokovic is going to get a lot of returns back in play – but that’s Novak Djokovic, he does.”
Wilander said that everything at the end will come at how Kyrgios serves and if he has a good serving day, he definitely will have a chance to win the final. He added that people want to see a good final and hence want Kyrgios to play well.
“I think it all depends on Nick Kyrgios and how he serves. If he has a great serving day, he has a chance. From the baseline, it is going to be very tough for Kyrgios. Yes, Djokovic is the favorite, but you want Nick Kyrgios to play great so that we have a great final,” he said.
‘I have no idea what is going to happen between these two’: Mats Wilander
Wilander emphasized how big of a role the crowd will play in the final. Both Djokovic and Kyrgios aren’t particularly the crowd’s favorite and hence the crowd will give it back equally to both. The Eurosport analyst guessed that the crowd will mostly be behind the person who isn’t winning so as to have a tight match. He also added that the crowd will tilt toward Kyrgios due to the charisma in his game.
“I think the crowd most probably will be behind the person that is not winning mostly. I think at the start, the crowd will most probably be on Nick Kyrgios’ side because a lot of people will come to Wimbledon and not have seen Nick Kyrgios play,” he said.
Wilander believes that how Kyrgios will engage with the crowd is going to be an important aspect of the match and when thought deeply, he has no idea how these two champions are going to react.
“I think the more interesting question is how Nick Kyrgios is going to engage the crowd, how is he going to interact with the crowd. Will it take him needing to be winning from the beginning to be positive, talk to the crowd, and talk to his box. Literally, I have no idea what is going to happen between these two in terms of body language and in terms of who the crowd is going to support,” he said.
He then lauded Djokovic by stating that he has reached 32 major finals in 68 tournaments and won 20 of them- which is an unbelievable record. “We know Nick is going to serve big, and we know that Novak is going to try and move Nick around from the baseline. Novak has won 20 Grand Slams, and made 32 Slam finals in 68 Grand Slam tournaments – that is an unbelievable record,” he said.
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Lakshya Chopra
(2648 Articles Published)