The gentlemen’s singles final of the 129th edition of The Championships is bathed in a rare aura. All Wimbledon men’s finals are big deals but this one somehow feels monumental, a happening presaged by suggestions that it will be contested by the two finest male tennis players in history.
Such talk, you may suggest, is just too over-excitable, offering invidious comparisons between different eras. For starters, there were two gents watching from the Royal Box on Friday, a Mr Bjorn Borg and a Mr Rodney Laver, who would have a right to beg to differ.
Yet even these great champions would recognise that the 40th showdown between Novak Djokovic, described only yesterday by the distinguished coach Nick Bollettieri as the “perfect tennis machine”, and Roger Federer, playing at a level of sublime excellence that even the game’s most garlanded performer has rarely touched, feels like a sports occasion for the ages.
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Poor old Andy Murray. First, he was subject to the wonder of Roger on Friday, then to reporters asking him whether he felt he had just been beaten not just by the best tennis player in history, but the best athlete.
The Briton shrugged that Serena Williams might have a shout in that argument but then hit the nail on the head by suggesting that, like football’s sorcerer Lionel Messi, people believe Federer is the finest because he engenders joy in them while making the absurdly difficult seem so gracefully simple.
That’s why the Centre Court crowd will be engaged in one big love-in on Sunday as Federer adorns his 10th Wimbledon final. The concept of someone appearing to defy time so effortlessly is irresistible. A father of four, coming up to his 34th birthday, years after they said he was on the wane? Stop it; he couldn’t really be playing better than ever, could he?
One service game dropped in 90 throughout The Championships. Only one break point offered up to a returner of Murray’s gifts. Needing less than 10 hours on court to reach the final, some three hours less than his opponent. Hmmm, maybe.
And yet… Why is the finest grass-court exponent in history, who is on the verge of more record-shredding — contesting a 26th Grand Slam final, scenting an eighth Wimbledon men’s title, an 18th Grand Slam and becoming the oldest singles champion in the Open era — not even going to start as favourite?
It’s because Djokovic has become, in Bollettieri’s words, as finely tuned as an F-18 fighter jet. “As I think about all of the players I’ve had the privilege of watching, I believe Novak Djokovic’s overall game, including the mental and physical parts, may be as perfect as I’ve seen,” he told The Independent.
It was only last month, remember, when Djokovic was playing so supremely well that we were speculating about him achieving a calendar Grand Slam, that he suddenly ran into a coruscating Stan Wawrinka in the French Open final.
Because even the deadliest fighter jet can be shot down. Federer needs no telling. In 2011, when Djokovic had an unbeatable air, 43 matches undefeated, the Swiss filleted him at Roland Garros.
It was just one of their incredible duels, like those two US Open semi-finals, in 2010 and 2011, when Djokovic saved two match points on each occasion before prevailing.
Yet, of their 39 meetings — Federer leads 20-19 — was any better than last year’s final here — their longest duel at almost four hours, in which the Swiss saved a Championship point, took proceedings to an engrossing fifth set, only to be subdued finally by Djokovic’s relentless intensity?
It was epic, but they may be even sharper this year. “This is where he loves to play,” sighs Djokovic. “This is where he plays his best tennis. The Centre Court of Wimbledon, seven titles. It's his court. He loves it. It's going to be probably the biggest challenge I can have.” Too true.
After the King comes Wimbledon’s former queen, Martina Hingis, tackling her second final of the weekend. She won the ladies’ doubles on Saturday and goes again in the mixed doubles alongside Leander Paes up against Alexander Peya and Timea Babos.
Yet while it is quite wonderful to see the original Swiss Miss back in the winner’s circle here after a 17-year absence, even she accepts it is a Swiss Mister dominating all our thoughts. For in the Court of King Roger, he could just write his grandest fairytale of all.
