The 2015 Wimbledon Championships Men's Singles final was the championship tennis match of the Men's Singles tournament at the

2015 Wimbledon Championships The 2015 Wimbledon Championships was a Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam tennis tournament which took place at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London, United Kingdom, from 29 June to 12 July 2015. It was the 129th edit ...

. A significant part of the

Djokovic–Federer rivalry The List of tennis rivalries, rivalry between Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer was one of the most prolific rivalries in tennis history and is considered one of the greatest rivalries of all time. Djokovic and Federer faced each other 50 times ...

, it pitted defending champion

Novak Djokovic Novak Djokovic ( sr-Cyrl-Latn, Новак Ђоковић, Novak Đoković, separator=" / ", ; born 22 May 1987) is a Serbian professional tennis player. He has been ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players#Weeks at N ...

and

Roger Federer Roger Federer ( , ; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 3 ...

against each other in a Grand Slam final for the third time, a rematch of the Wimbledon final a year earlier in which Djokovic defeated Federer in five sets. Before the match, Federer led the head-to-head 20 matches to 19, with the two players tied one to one on grass and one to one in Grand Slam finals. This was the first time the top two seeds had met in a men's Grand Slam final since the 2014 French Open, which pitted

Rafael Nadal Rafael Nadal Parera (born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for ...

(1) against Djokovic (2).

Background

Federer, a winner of 17 Grand Slams, was appearing in his 26th Grand Slam final and tenth Wimbledon final. He was seeking a record eighth Wimbledon title, which would rank him above

Pete Sampras Pete Sampras (born August 12, 1971) is an American former professional tennis player. One of the most successful tennis players of all time, he was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the A ...

, who won the tournament seven times. Djokovic, a winner of eight Grand Slams, was appearing in his 17th Grand Slam final and fourth Wimbledon final. He was seeking his third Wimbledon title and looking to defend his win of the previous year.

Build-up

This was a rematch of the previous year's final where Djokovic had won in five sets. Federer had shown strong form in the tournament. He had reached the semi-final against

Andy Murray Sir Andrew Barron Murray (born 15 May 1987) is a British former professional tennis player and coach. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professio ...

losing just one set and completed all his previous rounds with less than ten hours spent on the court. In the semi-final, he beat Murray in straight sets to set up his opportunity for a record 8th Wimbledon and 18th Grand Slam win. On the other half of the draw, Djokovic had barely survived after a scare of a fourth round elimination against Kevin Anderson whom he beat from two sets down. Djokovic had also recently lost in the French Open final against

Stan Wawrinka Stanislas "Stan" Wawrinka (; born 28 March 1985) is a Swiss professional tennis player. He has been ranked world No. 3 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), first achieved on 27 January 2014. Wawrinka has won 16 ATP T ...

, and was considered to be vulnerable at times.

Match

Djokovic won the first set, before Federer made a comeback to win the second set in a close tie-breaker, saving seven set points in the process. By the third set, however, Djokovic started to tighten his grip on the match as Federer's count of unforced errors rose. In some crucial moments, Djokovic was able to defend break points, and eventually, it became too much for Federer to sustain the challenge. In the end, Djokovic won in four sets.

Statistics

References

External links