"Wow, great moment" - Rafael Nadal congratulates Novak Djokovic on Wimbledon triumph
Rafael Nadal has congratulated Novak Djokovic on winning Wimbledon.
The Serb won his seventh title at the grass-court Major by defeating Nick Kyrgios 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6(3) in the final on Sunday. This was Djokovic's 21st Grand Slam title, putting him just one behind Nadal's tally of 22.
Magnificent.
In its 100 years, Centre Court has seen few champions like @DjokerNole
#Wimbledon | #CentreCourt100 https://t.co/vffvL2f08Q
Djokovic posted a video on Instagram the next day, where his children Stefan and Tara can be seen running on Centre Court. The 35-year-old then took his daughter on a piggyback ride.
"Precious moment with my family this morning. What a joy seeing them run on this legendary court! What a privilege to share my journey with them. Thank you @wimbledon for this opportunity. Taking home many memories for the lifetime," Djokovic captioned his post.
Nadal commented on Novak Djokovic's post, congratulating him on his Wimbledon triumph.
"Wow! Great moment. Enjoy it and many congrats!" Nadal wrote.
Nadal reached the semifinals of Wimbledon following wins over Francisco Cerundolo, Ricardas Berankis, 27th seed Lorenzo Sonego, 21st seed Botic van de Zandschulp and 11th seed Taylor Fritz.
The Spaniard suffered an abdominal injury during his quarterfinal match against Fritz and while he managed to play on and win in five sets, it prevented him from taking any further part in the tournament.
Novak Djokovic drops to 7th in ATP rankings
Despite successfully defending his Wimbledon title, Djokovic's ranking took a hit because of the ATP's decision not to award ranking points at this year's Championships. The 35-year-old finds himself in the seventh spot with 4,770 points, 75 points below sixth-placed Carlos Alcaraz.
Nadal moved up a spot to third, but would have been in second position if ranking points had been awarded for Wimbledon.
Djokovic could suffer a further drop in the rankings as he is in danger of missing the US Open due to his unvaccinated status.
The 35-year-old said in his press conference following the Wimbledon final that he has no plans of getting vaccinated against COVID-19 and can only hope for a change in the rules or a medical exemption, which he admitted was highly unlikely.
"I'm not vaccinated and I'm not planning to get vaccinated so the only good news I can have is them removing the mandated green vaccine card or whatever you call it to enter United States or exemption," Djokovic was quoted as saying by ESPN. "I don't know. I don't think exemption is realistically possible. If that is a possibility, I don't know what exemption would be about."