Djokovic’s daughter’s post-match celebration after the Serb achieves 100th win at Wimbledon
Novak Djokovic added another jewel to his crown as he became the second player to claim 100 wins in Men’s Singles at the Championships in the Open Era, after Roger Federer. He is only the third player to achieve the feat, with Martina Navratilova the solitary female in the elite club. Navratilova, a nine-time Wimbledon singles champion, amassed 120 singles victories. Eight-time champion Federer reached 105 singles wins. The big goal for seven-time Wimbledon champion Djokovic, however, would still be to equal Federer’s eight titles at the iconic grass-court major. Djokovic reached the milestone with his 6-3, 6-0, 6-4 win in the third round over Miomir Kecmanovic. The 24-time Grand Slam champion now has a century of wins at two Majors – Roland Garros and Wimbledon. While at his favorite Major, the Australian Open, Djokovic has 99 wins. Federer had 100+ wins at Wimbledon and the Australian Open. The record for most wins at a Major by a male player, unsurprisingly, belongs to Rafa Nadal at Roland Garros, where he had a whopping 112 wins. “Any history that I make in my favorite tournament, I’m blessed,” said the sixth seed in an on-court interview. The 38-year-old Djokovic, playing in his 20th Wimbledon tournament, will next face No. 11 Alex de Minaur for a spot in the quarterfinals. Djokovic, who could potentially meet No. 1 Jannik Sinner in the semifinals, has lost the past two Wimbledon finals to Carlos Alcaraz. While Djokovic was at his best on the grass, from the stands, it was his 7-year-old daughter who wowed Wimbledon. Tara Djokovic’s victory dance on Saturday brought a smile to her dad’s face. Everybody else’s, too. Djokovic had just clinched his 100th Wimbledon singles win and was asked during his on-court interview to shed light on the little dance he’s been doing recently. He said it’s done to a song called “Pump It Up.” “There’s a song with my kids — look, my daughter’s doing it right now,” a smiling Djokovic said as he looked into the crowd. “You want to show it, darling?” The TV camera then panned to Tara, who then showed everyone how it’s done: pump your fists down, then left, right, and overhead. The crowd roared.
Crispin says, “We knew we can”, AIFF wants to maintain the ‘success’ recipe: A long camp and exposure against stronger teams
Sudeep Pakrashi: The All India Football Federation (AIFF), buoyed by the senior national women’s team’s significant achievement of qualifying for the Asian Women’s Cup, next year in Australia, wants to maintain the recipe as a part of preparation for the main event. The 50-day preparatory camp and playing preparatory matches against four stronger teams, including Russia, the Korea Republic and Uzbekistan turned out to be major factors behind the team’s consistent performance in the recently concluded Asian Cup qualifiers where Indian women defeated Thailand finally in the concluding match to ensure qualification for the Asian Cup next year. Crispin Chhetri, the coach who was overjoyed with the achievement, expressed his satisfaction through WhatsApp texts on Sunday morning before boarding the flight for New Delhi. His messages were, “It is a massive thing for Indian football. It is a ray of hope for Indian women’s football.” Chhetri also revealed, “We knew we can.” The senior national women’s team lost all four preparatory matches. But playing against stronger teams helped the girls gain maturity to a level that was reflected in their confidence while playing against Thailand on Saturday. Firstly, the AIFF wants to continue with Crispin Chhetri as coach of the senior national women’s team for the Asian Cup next March. Secondly, going through the players’ engagements with their respective clubs in the domestic competitions, the AIFF wants to organize a long-term preparatory camp for the main event. Thirdly, the Federation has already started planning to provide preparatory matches for the senior national women’s team against a stronger side before the final event. However, the AIFF top brass is also optimistic about the national under-20 women’s team’s qualification for the AFC Under-20 Women’s Asia Cup. The team will be playing against Myanmar, Indonesia, and Turkmenistan. Myanmar will host the matches, to be held from 6th August to 10th August in a single round-robin format. Under the guidance of Swedish coach Joakim Alexandersson, the national under-20 women’s team have been training since 10th December last year. The reason behind the AIFF and coach’s optimism is that these girls defeated most of the participating teams in the recently concluded IWL-2 to qualify for the elite IWL this season while representing the Indian Arrows women’s team.
