Getting high

Dear World: Meet your new tall, dark and bendy No. 1 Novak Djokovic!

After the disappointment in Paris where he lost out on a chance to grab the top ranking from Rafael Nadal the Serb finally made good on the green grass of Wimbledon. He defeated Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 7-6(4), 6-2, 6-7(9), 6-3 and earned the right to officially call himself the best. And I say 'officially' because he's been the playing like the best baller around all year long but as we all know it's never yours until it's actually yours.

Interestingly, even though he came into this fortnight with only a single loss under his Sergio Tacchini belt his storyline seemed to take a backseat to that of Rafa and Roger Federer after their brilliant French Open fight. His relative lack of success on the slick stuff didn't help either and brought up questions about his chances of achieving the feat here. But he's gone about the business of winning matches and when it came time to put up or shut up today, he answered emphatically. I mean, pointy fingers don't lie:

Afterward, he talked about the importance of the moment in his post-match presser:

"It's definitely one of the most important achievements and days in my life, in my career. We are all dedicated to this sport 100 percent. When you know you're going to be the best in the world and you're reaching the finals of your favorite tournament, it's something special…Both [Nadal and Federer] are incredibly consistent with their success and so dominant the last couple years. They don't give you a lot of chances to become No. 1. So I guess you need to lose only one match in seven months to get there. If you can do that, then well done…I think every child has a dream to become something in his life. We live for those dreams. We were going through some really difficult periods. You know, our country had wars and stuff. So it wasn't easy to hold that desire and really believe in yourself. But I always did." 

There's something truly special about earning the top spot by winning the big match rather than getting it because someone lost; it's a mental thing in the best way possible. Nole obviously learned something important from his disappointing loss to Fed at Roland Garros and wasn't interested in repeating the same scenario this time around. And he didn't.

The tournament, though, is not over by any stretch. Nole will face defending champ Rafa in the final on Sunday. Will he have enough left, emotionally, to defeat the Spaniard for the fifth consecutive time this year and win his first Wimby Championship? I guess we'll all find out in two days time.

[Photo(s) credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images]