5) Andy Murray d. Fernando Verdasco 4-6, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, 7-5 - 2013 Quarter-final

The signature moment of Andy Murray’s 2013 Wimbledon title - the first for a British man in 77 years - was his final win over Novak Djokovic. But if all you remember is that straight-set victory, you might think Murray’s run through the Fortnight was an easy one. The match we don’t often see, but which everyone who was in Centre Court that day vividly remembers, is his come-from-behind Quarter-Fianal win over Fernando Verdasco.

Coming into the match, the Scot had won eight of his nine meetings with the Spaniard. But Verdasco’s one win had been a big one, in five sets, at the Australian Open. And he was clearly the superior player through the first two sets on this day. Firing 100mph forehands and sending Murray scrambling into the alley with his lefty serves into the ad court, Verdasco took the first two sets and left the Centre Court audience in silence. By this point in the tournament, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal had both lost, seemingly clearing a way for Murray to make the final. Was he not up to the task?

It turned out he was, and that this was the test he needed in order to prove it to himself. Murray ran through the third set in 30 minutes and won the fourth 6-4. After 10 straight holds to start the fifth, Murray won a 28-stroke rally to reach break point, and followed it with a backhand pass to go up 6-5. Four points later, he had passed the test. The audience leapt, and history awaited.

4) Novak Djokovic d. Juan Martin del Potro 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (2), 6-7 (6), 6-3 - 2013 Semi-final

The 2013 Fortnight was chilly and gray, but the sun came out for the men’s semi-finals. Was it a sign? British fans hoped so, because Andy Murray was due to play in the second semi. But it was the opening act, between Djokovic and Del Potro, that proved to be the memorable performance.

As Alyson Rudd of The Times wrote, Djokovic-Delpo was “the tennis equivalent of going out for cocktails before a red-carpet premiere and finding the drinks party is so riotous you have no appetite for the main attraction.”

It was the loser, Del Potro, who played the lead in this performance. Always a low-key showman, he brought out his inner ham on Centre Court. He took a seat at the back of the court after long points, stared theatrically after missed shots, and ambled to Djokovic’s side of the net to have a chat about a line call.

But while the crowd was with Del Potro, the match went Djokovic’s way in the end. He spent much of it on all fours, stretching for his opponent’s rocket forehands, but he ended up hitting 80 winners to Delpo’s 48. For most of the afternoon, Djokovic couldn’t find his down-the-line backhand, but he rediscovered it just in time, on match point.

Seeing an opening, Djokovic let the ball fly into the corner. His swing was true, and the win was his.

At four hours and 13 minutes, this was the longest semi-final in Wimbledon history. The two players knocked each other down, clapped for each other when they stood up, and hung in as long as they could. When it was over, they gave each other a heartfelt congratulations for a job well done together. It was a hard opening act to follow.

3) Rafael Nadal d. Juan Martin del Potro 7-5, 6-7 (7), 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 - 2018 Quarter-final

Tennis fans like to speculate about who would win a certain match-up, “if both players are playing their best.” In reality, playing well, almost by definition, means you’re not letting your opponent play well, too. Which is what made this epic between two of the game’s most popular players so special: By the fifth set, after four hours of lead changes and momentum changes, rocketed winners and desperate gets, Nadal and Del Potro really were giving each other their best.

As the final set progressed, the points turned into long, compelling, tactical dances. Sometimes they ended with one man flying through the air. At 1-1, Delpo dove across the court to stab a winning volley; a minute later, Nadal dove into the front row to track down an overhead.

By the end, Rafa faced a perplexing question: How do you beat Del Potro when every forehand he touches becomes a winner? Over the course of a 15-minute service game at 4-3, he found an answer: His drop shot. Nadal hit it perfectly time and again, but it almost wasn’t enough. Del Potro reached break point three times, before Nadal survived.

At 5-4, he survived again. After Del Potro torched another forehand - one of his 77 winners - Nadal tried another unusual tactic: He followed his serve to net. Chasing down Rafa’s volley, Del Potro slipped and fell. As the umpire called “Game, set match,” he buried his head in the dirt behind the baseline.

“I wanted to stay there all night,” Del Potro said.

Instead, when Nadal walked to his side of the court, he stood up. After four hours and 47 minutes of giving their best, there was nothing left to do but embrace.

2) Novak Djokovic d. Roger Federer 7-6 (5), 1-6, 7-6 (4), 4-6, 13-12 (3) - 2019 Final

The era of the Big Three isn’t over yet, but that trio of legends is going to have a hard time staging a more fitting final act than the one that Djokovic and Federer produced over the course of five ultra-taut hours at Wimbledon in 2019. Their title match—The War of 13-12— provided a denouement to the decade that no scriptwriter could have concocted, and tied many of the era’s story lines together with a magical bow.

The first of those story lines centered on the score. Beginning with John Isner’s 70-68 win over Nicolas Mahut in the first round in 2010, Wimbledon had endured a decade of ever-more-prolonged matches. Finally, in 2019, officials instituted a final set tie-break, at 12-12, for the first time in the tournament’s 142-year history. What were the chances this would be the first singles match to make it that far?

The second plot line concerned the matchup. Twice Djokovic had beaten Federer in well-played Wimbledon finals during the previous decade, and twice he had saved match points to beat him at the US Open. In a bizarre - and to Federer fans, horrifying - bit of historical coincidence, he would complete both trifectas on this day. Down two match points on Federer’s serve in the fifth set, Djokovic would extricate himself with a perfect forehand pass. By the end, instead of being six Grand Slam titles behind Federer, he trailed him by just four.

Finally, there was the story of Djokovic, a player who began by laboring in the shadows of Federer and Rafael Nadal, but who emerged to become the player of the decade by surviving classics like these, and fending off pro-Federer crowds like the one that came to Centre Court for this final.

Djokovic won fewer points, hit fewer aces and winners, and was forced to trick himself into believing that the fans who were cheering for Federer were actually cheering for him. But Djokovic was impenetrable when it mattered most, in the tie-breaks. Tennis’s scoring system has rarely seemed so cruel, or helped make a match so thrilling.

“It could easily have gone his way,” Djokovic said. But like so many other epics this decade, it went his. Finales don’t come any more fitting, or fittingly amazing.

1) Novak Djokovic d. Rafael Nadal 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (9), 3-6, 10-8 - 2018 Semi-final

When the 2018 edition of Wimbledon began, the tennis world was filled with 10th-anniversary nostalgia for the legendary 2008 marathon final between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. Ten years later, the Swiss and the Spaniard were the top seeds in the men’s draw again. What were the chances we would see something that good from them this time around?

Against all odds, we did see something that good, but this time it was Nadal and Novak Djokovic who put on the show, and this time it was a semi-final rather than a final.

But in terms of quality, drama, stakes, suspense, shot-making, and length, their five-hour epic lived up to its fabled predecessor, featuring a furiously brilliant third set tie-break to rival the one contested by Federer and Nadal in the fourth set back in 2008.

But where the 2008 final ended in drama-heightening darkness, the 2018 semi-final was cut short on its first day by a local curfew and finished early the next afternoon under the Centre Court roof. Yet the unsettled conditions and the deadline of the curfew inspired these two baseliners, who usually use the full 25 seconds between points, to play at a faster pace, and to attack at the first opportunity.

Each knew that, with Kevin Anderson up next (who had just played the second longest match in Wimbledon history) the winner of this contest would likely be the Wimbledon champion.

Djokovic and Nadal came to the net a combined 94 times and, in a measure of how little there was between them, each finished with 73 winners and 42 errors. For most of the match, Nadal played the flashier, riskier, and better tennis. But it was Djokovic who was stronger when it mattered most. Down a break point at 7-7 in the fifth set, he came up with a running, hooking crosscourt forehand pass that saved his service game, and launched him to his fifth Wimbledon title.

This five-hour thriller was the 52nd meeting between Djokovic and Nadal, and it may have been the best. It may not be remembered as the greatest match of all time, but with the benefit of hindsight, we can see that there wasn’t a better one played at Wimbledon all decade.