On Sunday, Roger Federer lost to Novak Djokovic in a five set thriller, 6-4 in the fifth. Targetting his eighth Wimbledon and 18th grand slam, many consider that this was Federer’s greatest chance to close his career with a slam and extend his overall grand slam tally. The draw had opened up at Wimbledon with the relatively early exits of both defending champion Andy Murray, and French Open champion Rafael Nadal. Djokovic had played an up and down slam, his performance vs Cilic was particularly bad, he went from a commanding lead to a five set mental struggle. Moreover, it had been 18 months since Djokovic’s last slam title back in Australia 2013, a poor conversion rate for a player in his prime, who had made a further three slam finals but failed to do the business.

The match we witnessed was a real thriller, I consider it to be the best since the classic Nadal-Federer final in 2008. Federer’s comeback at 5-2 in the fourth set showed his mettle and also that he has the motivation to dig deep: too many times in 2013 we saw Federer fade away towards the end of matches. Not so on Sunday.

What did Federer do well in the final?

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