NOVAK DJOKOVIC maintained his stranglehold on Wimbledon by beating a frustrated Nick Kyrgios yesterday to win a fourth consecutive title and 21st grand slam crown.

The Serbian has now won seven of the last 11 titles at the All England Club, equalling Pete Sampras’s tally and closing to within one of both Roger Federer’s men’s singles record here and Rafael Nadal’s overall mark.

It has been a difficult season for Djokovic but he has once again been able to rely on the lawns of Centre Court to bring the best out of him, and he raised his arms aloft after securing a 4-6 6-3 6-4 7-6 (3) victory.

Kyrgios’s first service game featured a 125 miles per hour second serve ace and an underarm serve, but mostly he wowed with the quality of his play, breaking Djokovic in the fifth game and clinching the set with his seventh ace.

Winning a set against Djokovic has not meant much at Wimbledon this year, though, and the top seed did what he does best, finding a metronomic rhythm both on return and from the baseline and gradually wearing his opponent down.

He broke the Kyrgios serve for the first time in their three meetings to lead 3-1, and the Australian began to channel his stress into ranting at his support box.

Kyrgios whipped up the crowd with a leaping pump of the fist when he chased down a drop shot at 3-5 that helped him create four break points, but he could not take any of them.

Djokovic was now reading the Kyrgios serve incredibly well and the pressure on the challenger was growing all the time.

He was doing remarkably well to hold on to his serve but the dam burst in the ninth game when, from 40-0, Djokovic won five successive points to leave himself serving for the set.

Kyrgios screamed at his box and then slammed his water bottle down in frustration.

A lengthy bathroom break for Djokovic allowed Kyrgios to cool the fires, and he did well to hold serve throughout the fourth set, but a one-sided tie-break proved the end of his hopes.