Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray, the top two seeds, met in the final of Wimbledon—their second Grand Slam championship encounter of the year.
After reaching the Wimbledon final, winning the gold medal at the Olympics and capturing the US Open for his first major title in 2012, Andy Murray’s stellar form carried over into the early part of 2013. The Scot won in Brisbane, then reached the final of the Australian Open and triumphed in Miami.
However, injury slowed his progress and he was forced to skip the French Open. Returning to the tour on grass at Queen’s Club, Murray won his third title overall there. Going into Wimbledon as the second seed, Murray breezed through his first four matches before being forced to rally from two sets to love down against Fernando Verdasco in the quarterfinals. He then beat the unexpected semifinalist Jerzy Janowicz to reach the final for the second year in a row.
Waiting for him there would be the top seed Novak Djokovic. The 2011 winner had to pass a five-set test of his own in the semifinals against Juan Martin del Potro. For Djokovic, it was his eighth final in his last 11 Grand Slams. Posting a 6-2 record in those matches, his only losses came in 2012 to Rafael Nadal at the French Open and to Murray at the US Open.
In the first set, Murray—bidding to become the first British male to win the title since Fred Perry in 1936—posted the first break early on after a battle: The initial three games took 20 minutes. Further indicating that a long day could be in store, Djokovic broke back immediately.
However, the Serb—struggling with errors—was broken again in the later stages of the set. At 5-4, Murray dug out of a hole on his serve to take the opener.
Djokovic immediately raised the level of his game in the second set and raced to a 4-1 lead. He couldn’t hold on to his break advantage as Murray put the pressure on Djokovic’s second serve to get the break back in the seventh game. At 5-5, Djokovic—rattled over a line call—was broken again and Murray once again closed out a set on his serve.
At the start of the third, it was Murray’s turn to take an early lead as he went up 2-0. Djokovic, though, kept Murray off balance during their rallies with multiple drop shots and the world No. 1 stormed back to take a 4-2 lead. Murray fought back to get on even ground once again, and then broke Djokovic to go ahead 5-4. For the third time, Murray served to close out a set, with this one being for the title. After losing three match points and fighting off three break points in a 12-minute game, Murray finally prevailed when he hit a forehand that Djokovic couldn’t get back over the net to win the biggest title of his career.
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This was the first Wimbledon men’s final since 2002 that didn’t feature Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal in the final.
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With the win, Murray stretched his winning streak on grass to 18 matches in a row, going back to 2012 when he won the Olympic Gold Medal in London.
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The last time a Scotsman won the men’s title was in 1896—117 years prior—when Harold Mahony defeated defending champion Wilfred Baddeley in five sets.
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