Top 10 memories from Wimbledon 2014

The finalists don't have to lug their own bags on to Centre Court - there are attendants to assist them with their luggage - but Novak Djokovic wouldn't have been human if he hadn't been carrying something else: a little self-doubt. After all, he came into the title-match with a disappointing recent run in Grand Slam finals, with just one victory from six. And he would have heard some of the chatter about whether he had made the right move in hiring Boris Becker. Any Wimbledon victory is a sweet moment, but this must have been even sweeter because of all that white noise. This was a hugely entertaining match - five sets of grass-court theatre between Djokovic and Roger Federer - and it ended with the Serbian winning Wimbledon again, and, just as he had done in 2011, eating a tuft of the Centre Court grass. What a year for Djokovic, who went into the off-season as a husband, a new father, the world No. 1 and the Wimbledon champion.

 

The morning of the men's final, it was as if the All England Club had been overrun by tennis druids and soothsayers, who were all saying that it was somehow pre-ordained that Roger Federer would win an eighth Wimbledon title. Why so sure? Because of the number eight, the druids were saying. As well as being lucky in Chinese culture, eight would also apparently bring good fortune for this Swiss tennis player. Look at all the eights, they kept saying. Federer was born on the eighth day of the eighth month of 1981. Not only that, but his management company is called Team 8. And, in addition to trying to win an eighth Wimbledon title, he was also attempting to extend his Grand Slam collection to 18 and to win the 80th tournament of his career. Federer could hardly have come closer to fulfilling these predictions, but it wasn't to be.

 

The morning of the women's final, Petra Kvitova looked out of the window of the house she had rented in Wimbledon village to see 'POJD' - the Czech for 'Come on' - spelt out in kitchen roll on the grass. That was her coach David Kotyza's doing. That afternoon, she turned in the most extraordinary performance of her life, whether on the grass of the All England Club or anywhere else on the tennis map. Eugenie Bouchard didn't do much wrong; it was just that Kvitova did almost everything right, and she was the champion inside an hour, dropping just three games along the way. That made Kvitova the only female player of her generation, whose surname is not Williams, to win multiple Wimbledon titles. And don't imagine that Kvitova left that house in a mess; before departing London, she dusted, vacuumed and even put the wheelie-bins out.

 

"Oh my goodness, that is beyond belief," said the watching John McEnroe, while Tim Henman described it as "not just the shot of the tournament, but the shot of the year." Nick Kyrgios could play at Wimbledon for another 15 summers, and he may never come close to playing a stroke of this brilliance, boldness and cheek. Perhaps best not to describe it as a 'stroke', as that makes it sound as though it is something to be found in an old tennis textbook, and that's plainly not the case. This was modern, irreverent, unorthodox.

 

It was during the Australian teenager's fourth-round victory over Rafa Nadal that he produced the most outrageous of tweeners. Standing 'front on', he wafted his racket behind his back, hitting the ball through his legs for a winner. At first, Kyrgios tried to play it cool, as if it was the most normal thing in the world to have played a shot like that against Nadal on Centre Court, but then the smile exploded across his face. This was the most astonishing of tournaments for Kyrgios, who in the second round had staved off nine match points against Richard Gasquet of France. Before his match with Nadal, Kyrgiois had been peeved to read a comment from his own mother suggesting he didn't have much of a chance. Victory took him through to a first Grand Slam quarter-final, where he was beaten by Milos Raonic.

 

The tennis establishment contested the final, with Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer playing for the title, but the line-up for the semi-finals included two players who had never previously gone so deep into a major. In summers to come, expect much more from Grigor Dimitrov and Milos Raonic.

 

"I just cannot believe it," France's Alize Cornet said after beating Williams in the third round, for what was the American's earliest departure from The Championships since 2005. "Three years ago, I couldn't play on grass, I was so bad, and now I have beaten Serena." This followed Williams' early defeats at the first two Grand Slams of the year, at the Australian Open and Roland Garros; had she put too much pressure on herself to win the 18th major that would put her level with Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova? It certainly looked that way. Three Slams into the year, and Williams had failed to even make a quarterfinal, let alone win a title (still, just two months later, she made it to 18 by taking the US Open).

 

Okay, so Eugenie Bouchard 'only' went six sevenths of the way to winning the Venus Rosewater Dish, and couldn't handle Petra Kvitova in the final. But don't let the one-sided nature of the title-match obscure how the Wimbledon fortnight was a fine tournament for the young Canadian. Don't be surprised if she wins Wimbledon one day.

 

The wonderful story of the Popsocks, as you might wish to call them, began with a text message. It was that speculative note - Jack Sock wondered whether Vasek Pospisil, a fellow tennis traveller but someone he didn't know so well, would like to play doubles at Wimbledon - that led to the pair winning a Grand Slam at their first tournament together. Strange to think that they almost didn't play because of Pospisil's sore back, as they would end up beating the greatest team in history, Bob and Mike Bryan, in the final. "Surreal," American Sock said of their first fortnight as a pair, while Canadian Pospisil disclosed that their strategy on Centre Court had been to "close your eyes and hope you can play the best tennis of your life".

 

Winning your first Wimbledon title is a victory in itself, but for the Italian pairing of Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci there was the additional pleasure of completing the Career Grand Slam. They were the first doubles team since the Williams sisters in 2001 to win all of the Slam titles at least once, and only the fifth partnership to achieve the feat. The other four pairs are Serena and Venus Williams, Martina Navratilova and Pam Shriver, Kathy Jordan and Anne Smith, and Gigi Fernandez and Natasha Zvereva.

 

As players, Stefan Edberg had got the better of Boris Becker in Wimbledon finals, winning two of the three they had contested, with victories in 1988 and 1990. Sandwiched in between was Becker's win over Edberg in the 1989 title-match. If Novak Djokovic versus Roger Federer was Becker against Edberg by proxy, did the Serbian's five-set victory give Becker parity in his Wimbledon final series with Edberg?