Nick Bollettieri: Roger Federer will not get a better chance to add to his Slam tally

It was no classic, but Djokovic did enough to provide some drama

Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer pose with their trophies after the final (GETTY IMAGES)

That was a battle of nerves and it was the guy who held his nerve at the very last who won the match. Well done, Novak Djokovic.

It was not the greatest tennis match by any stretch of the imagination but it was one hell of a tennis watch. The crowd wanted Federer but a man who has won so much just could not hold his nerve – having fought tooth and nail to get back into the contest – when the trophy was there for him to claim for an eighth time. And you know what? I’m not sure such a good chance to win a Grand Slam will come his way again.

It was an odd final, intense and dramatic, but it is almost as if the nerves of the crowd got to the players. That fifth set was not good tennis, both players made too many mistakes and as they ran out of juice it only got worse and that was Federer’s downfall. By the end he was shanking the ball. In fact, both players were making flagrant errors. So not a brilliant finale to what was a gripping final but I guess if you like your sport with a bit of drama you will be well satisfied with the end to what has been a roller coaster of a Wimbledon.

Federer mixed his game up out there. I think we saw a little of the influence of Stefan Edberg in how often Federer chipped and charged and got in to the net.

But when you have two guys who have been at this level for so long then there is not an awful lot of say the coaches are going to have in the outcome of a match. It’s not like soccer or our football where a coach can alter the outcome once a match has started. Federer used more slices than I have seen for a long time, keeping the ball low over the net and trying to mess up Djokovic’s timing. It worked for a time and Djokovic’s movement was not as good as it usually is. Boy, he was slipping all over the place but he got himself back up again.

It was a hugely disappointing end to a tournament in what has been a disappointing year so far for Federer. He was ever so close out there to another Wimbledon crown and this is the surface which he is better suited to. That was a big miss for Roger.

Petra Kvitova has had an up-and-down year. Hell, she has had an up-and-down three years since she won Wimbledon but the last couple of weeks have shown what a good player she is, and she must use this win as a launch pad to become one of the dominant players in the game.

For me the key to her Wimbledon came all the way back in the third round when she found herself a set down to Venus Williams. Now Venus isn’t the player she was but to get your shit together and come from a set down to beat her is still a worthy achievement – that kick-started Kvitova’s tournament.

She won on Saturday thanks to sheer power. Oh boy, does she hit the ball hard and she just powered Eugenie Bouchard off the court. She had her direction finder switched on too – the serve was strong and true and that crashing forehand hit the spot time after time.

Djokovic drops to his knees in celebration (GETTY IMAGES)

Bouchard and her coach Nick Saviano will go away and analyse this defeat and there is one area of her game that simply has to improve. Her second serve was not good enough and when your opponent is winning over 80 per cent of her first-serve points then you come under huge pressure on your serve.

She could not handle the pressure and the stats of the day spell that out in black and white, She won 46 per cent of the points on her first serve and 36 per cent on her second. Her inexperience showed too. There was no Plan B and holy cow, do you always need to have a Plan B tucked away somewhere. When her serve went wrong there was nowhere to go.

A sad loss and a hard day, a hard lesson in what it takes to win the big ones for sure for Bouchard but she will get over it, and probably be a better player for it.