Respecting your elders

Just about to walk out for the final of the gentlemen’s singles, Carlos Alcaraz wasn’t entirely sure what the protocol was. “You go first,” he said to Novak Djokovic.

Once the match began on Centre Court, the Spaniard knew exactly what he was doing, defeating Djokovic in straight sets to retain his Wimbledon title.

Four times the 21-year-old Spaniard has played in a Grand Slam final and he has won on every occasion.

But Alcaraz still thought of Djokovic as “Superman”, given the 37-year-old, who had been hoping to become the oldest champion, was competing in a Wimbledon final a little over a month after a knee operation. 

Finding inspiration

A tip for aspiring champions: get into Lego. Iga Swiatek, the world No.1, likes to relax and quieten her mind between matches by building with Lego bricks and so does Barbora Krejcikova, who won the ladies’ singles title for the first time.

Krejcikova, the eighth different ladies' singles champion from the last eight editions of The Championships, played some fine tennis to defeat Jasmine Paolini in an entertaining, three-set final but perhaps the most memorable moment happened just off Centre Court.

The Czech has been dreaming about her late friend and mentor Jana Novotna, the 1998 champion, who died in 2017 from cancer.

Seeing her own name as well as Novotna’s up on the board was a special moment for the champion.

All smiles

Jasmine Paolini has said she will remember her win against Donna Vekic forever and you can appreciate why.

Lasting almost three hours, it was the longest ladies’ singles semi-final in the history of The Championships and it felt as though almost every minute contained some kind of drama and emotion, with Paolini coming from a set down.

Before this summer, she had never won a Tour-level match on the Wimbledon grass, but that didn’t hold her back.

Has anyone ever endeared themselves to the All England Club crowds as quickly as Paolini did? Bringing energy and bounce and smiles to the grass, she was the first Italian woman to play in a ladies’ singles final. 

Crunching the numbers

Just how important is data in tennis these days?

No one will have a more original take than Henry Patten, who used to log match data from courtside during The Championships – though on the outside courts and never the show courts, he has reflected – and is now a Wimbledon champion.

The Briton and his Finnish partner Harri Heliovaara were the unseeded winners of the gentlemen’s doubles after beating the all-Australian team of Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson. 

A masterclass

Where better than Centre Court, the grandest and most elegant of settings, to showcase your old-school, single-handed backhand? 

Playing in a first Wimbledon semi-final, Lorenzo Musetti lost in straight sets but there’s no doubt that he produced the best shot of the match, a backhand winner that is worth watching again and again. 

Shining bright 

Win seven singles matches on the grass and you’re Wimbledon champion. Except, that is, when your ranking isn’t high enough for direct acceptance into the main draw and you must begin in Qualifying.

With her three victories at Roehampton and then four at the All England Club, Lulu Sun put together a fabulous run, coming within three more of achieving what would have been a Wimbledon first: lifting the Venus Rosewater Dish as a qualifier. 

It was Vekic who stopped the New Zealander from going any deeper into the draw – you can’t say Fortnight here as, for Sun, this was almost a three-week adventure. 

A proud exit

Amid all the emotion of Andy Murray’s farewell ceremony on Centre Court, there were some lighter moments too, such as when he suggested he might have celebrated too hard after winning one of his two gentlemen’s singles titles. 

Unfortunately for Murray, he wasn’t able to play singles one final time at Wimbledon, but at least, right at the end, he had the opportunity to do something for the first time on the grass: playing doubles with his brother Jamie. 

Glad to be back

On the way to the fourth round of the ladies’ singles, Emma Raducanu looked as though she was truly having fun on a tennis court for the first time in a while. 

Tennis was a joy again, and her run at the All England Club could propel her to great things again in the future. 

Diede the Great

Winning 15 consecutive Grand Slam titles is a remarkable achievement. 

Diede De Groot, the champion again in the wheelchair ladies’ singles, is nothing less than unstoppable. 

What could have been

Eleven times in the gentlemen’s singles, a player came from two sets down to win.

That was a record for Wimbledon in the Open era. 

One of those matches was Frances Tiafoe’s victory in the opening round against Italian Matteo Arnaldi.

It's funny to think that, in the third round, the American came very close to beating Alcaraz, at one stage leading by two sets to one.

If Tiafoe had gone on to win, would we now be talking about Djokovic taking a record-equalling eighth Wimbledon title while also extending his collection of Grand Slams to an unprecedented 25?