 Novak Djokovic vs. Matej Baratini is the men's final for Wimbledon for 2021. Both players have had different roads to get to the final stage. Baratini entered the tournament as the number 7 seed and will take on Palla in the first round. And after dropping the second set, he prevailed in 4, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, 6-love. In his first round match, Baratini hit 20 aces and only the 3 double faults so he served was on point. He also went on to hit 47 winners and 29 errors and lost only 9 points on his first serve at 83% of first serve points won. He also converted 5 out of the 8 break points that he got and he only had one break point against his serve for the entire match. His second round was against the lucky loser, Vendor Zanshul, Baratini dismissed the Dutchman in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6. This second round match, Baratini's serve was firing again with 20 aces and only the 2 double faults. He also hit 39 winners and 27 unforced errors so still not the greatest hitting of all time. The serve was definitely keeping him afloat and again only losing 9 points on his first serve. The first serve was the key and although he only converted 2 out of the 7 break points that he got, he didn't get broken at all in the match, he faced 9 break points and he saved them all thanks to the big serving. His third round opponent was against Betonay and again a straight set performance, winning in 3, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4. Against Betonay, again the serve was firing. This time he hit 20 aces and no double faults so a very good serving display by Baratini. To go with the 20 aces, he hit 38 winners in total and only 23 unforced errors. Still not the best hitting he's done, but the serve definitely keeping him in front and keeping him going in this tournament. And again he only lost 9 points on his first serve when he got it in. It's becoming a trend, he's only losing 9 points going into these rounds and his serve is the key. He converted 3 out of the 9 break points that he got and he didn't get broken in the entire match, only facing 2 break points on his own serve. In the fourth round, he faced another unseeded opponent, Avashka and again another straight set performance from Baratini. 6-4, 6-3, 6-1. In this match, the serve wasn't working as well as the previous 3 rounds, he only hit 7 aces and the 3 double faults. To go with that, he hit 37 winners and 23 unforced errors so not the best match that he's played for the week, but still very effective on his first serve. Only losing 6 points on his first serve so again the first serve is key. He converted 6 out of the 12 break points so not the best conversion rate for the tournament. And he only faced 1 break point for the entire match so another great serving display thanks to the first serve. His quarter-final opponent was the number 16 seed Felix Ojali Asim and this was the first time Baratini was playing a seeded player for the event. Baratini had the experience prevailing in 4, 6-3, 5-7, 7-5, 6-3. Against Jali Asim, this would be Baratini's poorest performance. Didn't play too well in this one, he hit the 12 aces on the 3 double faults but he hit so many unforced errors. 33 winners, 45 unforced errors for the entire match so a lot more errors than winners in this one. And his first serve percentage went down to 76% losing a lot of points on the first serve so Ali Asim did well to get the serve back into play. And he converted only 6 of the 14 break points that he got on the Ali Asim serve and he gave away 12 break points being broken 3 times on his own serve. In the semi-finals, Baratini would take on the number 14 seed Hercatch who was just coming off the win against Roger Federer. And after winning the first 2 sets easily, he had to fight to finish in 4 eventually prevailing 6-3, 6-love, 6-7, 6-4 to advance to his first Grand Slam final. The semi-finals would be Baratini's best performance by far, he absolutely killed it on serve and his ground strokes were amazing as well. The forehand was working 22 aces, only the 1 double fault for Baratini and that came at the very last moment in the match serving for the match in the 4th set. He hit a massive 60 winners and only 18 unforced errors which is both the most winners he's hit in the entire tournament and the least unforced errors. So the ratio is very very far apart, very good hitting for Baratini. He also served at 86% of first serve points 1, so serving the big first serve, it was working again and he converted 6 out of the 10 break points on the Hercatch serve and he also wasn't broken on his own serve, only giving away 2 break points and he saved them both. The defending champion and world number 1 Novak Djokovic started his tournament against the wildcard Draper and after losing the first set, Djokovic would eventually prevail in 4, 4, 6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2. Against Draper, Djokovic was serving very very well, he served 25 aces and only the 1 double fault which is a massive serving day for Novak Djokovic. To go with that, he hit 47 winners and 24 unforced errors and only lost 8 points when he got his first serve in, so the serve was massive in this first round. He converted 6 out of the 15 break points that he got and he saved 2 out of the 3 break points against his own serve, so again, the serving display from Djokovic in the first round was awesome. His second round opponent was against the veteran Anderson who he'd had some battles with at Wimbledon in the past, but this time Djokovic got the job done in straight sets, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3. In the second round, the serving was still there but it was more about the ground strokes, he didn't hit many errors at all. 9 aces for Djokovic on the serve, 1 double fault, with that he hit 25 winners and only 6 unforced errors, so a great display by the world number 1. Again, the first serve was crucial, only losing 7 points when he got his first serve in and he converted 4 out of the 8 break points on the big Anderson serve while not giving away any break point chances, so the first serve was crucial again, but he wasn't giving points away on the ground strokes either. His third round opponent was against the qualifier Kutla, and after getting the job done in the first 2 sets, the third set was tight, with both players having set points, but Djokovic would get through in 3 sets, 6-4, 6-3, 7-6. In the third round, Djokovic did struggle on the ground strokes, he seemed to be struggling with a little bit of form, also the crowd were on his back, so he wasn't dealing with them well either. He hit 8 aces and 6 double faults. To go over the serving, he hit 34 winners and 28 unforced errors, so his ground strokes weren't as good as the second round. He did only lose 6 points on his first serve when he got his first serve in and converted 4 out of the 10 break points that he got on the Kutla serve, but he also got broken a couple of times himself, only saving 2 of the 4 break points against his own serve. His fourth round opponent was against the number 17 seed, Garen, who was a little bit of a surprise getting into the fourth round considering he's more of a clay quarter, and this showed as Djokovic demolished the Chilean in straight sets, 6-2, 6-4, 6-2. In the fourth round against Garen, his serving was back. He hit 9 aces and only the 1 double fault, which was back to what he was doing against Anderson and Draper in the first couple of rounds. His ground strokes however, were still a little bit off, hitting 28 winners and 23 unforced errors, but the big stat only losing 3 points when he got his first serve in, so the serving was back. However, he only converted 5 out of the 12 break points that he got, so the conversion rate wasn't as good considering the amount of chances that he got. With the 2 break points he faced on his own serve, he saved them both, so he was saving break points like he did at the start of the tournament. The quarter-final opponent was against the unseated, Fucovic, and although Fucovic did have some highlight shots during the match, Djokovic got the job done in straight sets again, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4. In the quarter-finals, this would be arguably Djokovic's worst performance considering the score line was straight sets, it didn't show that on the stat sheet. He only hit 4 aces and 3 double faults, 23 winners and 30 unforced errors, so for the first time in the tournament, Djokovic was hitting more errors than winners, and even though his first serve points 1 was still at 81%, which seemed to be a common thing going through the tournament, he only converted 4 out of the 14 chances that he got on the Fucovic serve, however he did save 5 out of the 6 break points on his own serve, so the serving was still there, but the ground strokes were a little bit off. In the semi-finals, Djokovic would take on the number 10 seed, Denyshapov Arlov, and this was a very tight match for Djokovic as he was tested by the young Canadian, but he would eventually get through in 3 tight sets, 7-6, 7-5, 7-5 to advance to the final again. In the semi-finals, Djokovic was back on the ground strokes, starting to play a lot better, and he was coming up clutch when he needed the big serves the most. He hit 8 aces and 5 double faults to go with 33 winners and only 15 unforced errors, so back on the ground strokes, he was back in form, and although he didn't win as many first serve points in this match as he did in the previous rounds, he did convert 3 out of the 10 break points faced against Ashapov Arlov's serve, while saving 10 out of the 11 break points on his own serve, and some of those games he was down love 40, and he came back to win them, so his serve was coming up clutch, even though he wasn't getting as many free points on that first serve. The head to head between these two is 2-0 in favour of Djokovic, but the last time they played was at the French Open in the quarter-finals a couple of months ago, and Djokovic won in 4, but Matteo Baratini was starting to come back in that match, so it's interesting to see if Baratini can get off to a good start here, how he's going to affect Djokovic on the faster surface. If Baratini is going to win this match, he needs his serve to be working, and of course the forehand, they're the weapons, and he needs to be using them to great effect against Djokovic if he's going to win any sets here against the world number one. If Djokovic is going to win, he needs to limit the unforced errors. In the last couple of matches, he's been hitting a lot of errors, and if Baratini is firing at all cylinders with the serve and the forehand, Djokovic can't be giving away free points, so he needs to be clutch, and he also needs to be serving well as well. This is a tough one because we've got Baratini who's playing in his first final with Novak Djokovic going for records at the moment. He's got the 20 grand slams joining Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal, so I'm going to go with Djokovic on that one just because Baratini hasn't been to a final of a slam before. I think that it's going to be very new to him, he's going to be nervous early, and I think Djokovic is going to prevail just because he's got the experience over Baratini. I think it's going to be a 5 setter though, and I think Djokovic is going to get through. Let me know down in the comments below who do you think is going to win this final.