Novak Djokovic, on Sunday, equalled the record of 20 Grand Slams by winning the Wimbledon men’s singles title against Italian Matteo Berrettini in a match that lasted 3 hours and 24 minutes. Djokovic won 6-7(4/7), 6-4, 6-4, 6-3. With this win, he moved three-quarters of the way to the first calendar Grand Slam of all four majors since 1969.

In the first set, Djokovic started strong and broke Berrettini early to take a 3-1 lead and then held his serve to open up a three-game cushion. However, Berrettini upped the ante and held his serve with massive forehands and tired the World No. 1 to close the gap. The scoreline read 3-5, with the Italian trailing.

Soon, Djokovic fell behind with Berrettini drawing level at 6-6 and took the game into a tiebreaker. In the tiebreaker, it was 3-3 but then the Italian gained steam and won it 7-4. The first set lasted 70 minutes.

In the second set, we saw a vintage Djokovic as he skillfully played his drop shots, wide forehands and his beautiful aces to put his opponent on the back foot. Djokovic broke Berrettini in his first service game to take a 1-0 lead.

It quickly developed into a 4-0 lead with Djokovic coming back to his usual self, not losing his service game and not allowing a return on his serve. One of the games lasted just around a minute. This shows the accuracy with which he serves.

However, Berrettini managed to hold on to his serve in the fifth game and get one on the board. Meanwhile, Djokovic was serving for the set at 5-1. But the big Italian had other plans in place. He broke back and closed the gap to take the scoreline to 4-5, trailing.

But Djokovic kept his calm, produced another brilliant service game to take home the second set 6-4 in 43 minutes.

By the time it was the third set, the crowd was rallying behind both the players as both players fed off the energy. Berrettini was really pushing Djokovic to his limits as he brought about his A-game. Djoker, at times, looked frustrated and couldn’t believe the unforced errors that he was making.

Set 3, which lasted for 47 minutes, saw a similar storyline with both players making the most of opportunities and forcing the opponent to make juvenile errors. But what stood out in the third set was Djokovic’s wide forehands and drop shots which were skillfully countered by Berrettini. However, it was the experience at play that got the better player to come out on top.

The fourth set was mostly a physical affair, as the commentators described it. At 3-3, neither of the players had broken the opponent nor dropped a game. But what was happening was Berrettini slowly giving up with Djokovic edging closer to a 20th Grand Slam and a sixth Wimbledon title.

Berrettini was pushed and pushed and pushed until he broke. A couple of brilliant wide cross-court shots left Berrettini huffing and puffing. But Djokovic was not down on stamina, he is a beast on the court. After failing to hold on to his serve, Berrettini trailed Djokovic 3-4 in the fourth set.

But in the end, Djokovic held his nerve and broke Berrettini with the scoreline reading 5-3 to lift his sixth Wimbledon title.