By triumphing in Sunday’s Wimbledon final in straight sets of 6-2, 6-2, 7-6, Serbia’s Novak Djokovic has put himself firmly in the  camp of prominent lawn tennis players the world has ever known.

As Djokovic climbs the ladder of Open-era Wimbledon champions, he now stands behind only Roger Federer, Pete Sampras and Bjorn Borg.

Djokovic once again found himself battling the crowd as everyone knew that South Africa’s Kevin Anderson was coming in with the equivalent of a weighted rucksack on his back after that daft 6hr 36min semi-final against John Isner of the United States.

The first two sets lived down to expectations. Anderson made 25 unforced errors and dropped serve four times in eight attempts. He had only been broken twice during the whole of the Isner epic.

Fatigue and nervousness got the better of Kevin Anderson early on in the encounter but the third set turned into a proper battle. Anderson had shaken off his anxiety  and warmed up his ravaged body with the help of an elbow massage from his trainer.

If Anderson had played from the baseline, his ground strokes broke down first. If he came forward, he was either passed or left picking the ball up off his bootlaces, hence allowing the Serb complete the routing with ease.

“For the first time in my life I have someone screaming daddy, daddy. He is under five years so he can’t watch the match live. But he’s here now,” Djokovic said after the match looking at his son, Stefan.

“He’s been the best sparring partner I’ve had in last few weeks. I’d like to congratulate Kevin. He’s spent a lot of hours on the court, and in the third set he was the better player. So I’d like to say congratulations and wish you all the best. 

“It’s easy to talk now, but I had to really trust the process and trust in myself. I owe a great, great thanks to my team, to everyone who has been supporting me. I had a surgery and was absent from the tour for six months and faced this severe injury for the first time.

“I had my moments of doubt and didn’t know if I could compete. It’s my first grand slam final in a couple of years and this is the best place to come back. Very, very special. The grass tasted very well, I had a double portion to treat myself.

“It’s truly something different to play in a grand slam final, especially here. Thank you to the crowd and for showing so much passion in the last couple of weeks. It’s a pleasure to play in front of you,” he added.