TORONTO, Ontario – Just one day after claiming his first Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship pole and podium finish, Denmark’s Christian Rasmussen went one better.

Rasmussen claimed the first victory for himself and the Jay Howard Driver Development team, on Sunday, finishing barely a car’s length ahead of Saturday winner Darren Keane  at the conclusion of a dramatic 20-lap Cooper Tires Grand Prix of Toronto presented by Allied Building Products main event on the challenging Exhibition Place street circuit.

Englishman Matt Round-Garrido profited from a variety of incidents to claim a hard-earned first podium finish.

“I’ve got goosebumps!” said an elated Rasmussen. “I’ve been waiting such a long time for this first win and first podium this weekend. I managed to get Darren at the start and build from there, pulling a gap again on the restarts. That last restart was a little too intense, because Darren was right there, but I managed to pull it off and I’m so happy.

“I really enjoy the street races; they are much more driver-dependent than other tracks. We struggled a bit early in the season to find our pace, but we’re on a roll now and I can’t wait for the next race.”

Anxious to atone for an error which cost him a potential victory yesterday, second-starting Rasmussen made an incisive move to the inside of polesitter Keane at the first corner to take the lead.

Behind, Colin Kaminsky also took advantage of Keane’s loss of momentum to sneak through into second place at turn three.

Rasmussen’s teammate, Christian Bogle, was the biggest mover on the first lap, pulling off an audacious outbraking maneuver at turn three – perfectly cleanly – to vault from 10th on the grid to fourth by the completion of the first lap.

That move placed Bogle ahead of Brazil’s Eduardo Barrichello and series leader Braden Eves.

Bogle soon slipped down the order, but still seemed to be set for a career-best seventh-place finish until clipping a wall moments before the third and final full-course caution. Unfortunately for him, the clean-up was completed just in time for a one-lap dash to the checkers, so he had no option but to head for the pit lane as a retirement.

Up front, meanwhile, Rasmussen had managed to eke out a little breathing space by the time the caution flags waved for the first time after seven laps due to a spin for Barrichello in turn three.

Rasmussen maintained his advantage over Kaminsky at the restart, and again following another caution period shortly afterward when Barrichello’s teammate, Jack William Miller, found the wall in turn five.

Rasmussen was gifted a much greater cushion on lap 16, when Keane muscled his way past Kaminsky into second place at turn three. Kaminsky then came under intense pressure from the second Cape car of Eves, who attempted a similar move in turn one – which again ended in contact and ensured yet another full-course caution.

Eves and Kaminsky were able to continue after stopping in the pits, but could manage only distant 11th- and 12th-place finishes, respectively.

The one-lap dash to the finish saw Rasmussen barely hold off Keane, while Round-Garrido was hot on their tail in third, just ahead of DEForce teammates Manuel Sulaiman and 14-year-old Jak Crawford.

Australian Cameron Shields rounded out the top six finishers despite losing a lot of ground in the early stages. Next up was Brazilian Bruna Tomaselli, who earned the Tilton Hard Charger Award for climbing all the way from 16th on the grid to seventh.

INDIANAPOLIS – “Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing,” is a creed that’s heard repeated all throughout the sports world.

However, what the quote doesn’t say is that, more often than not, it’s consistency that wins championships.

If an athlete’s final product of results is “boom or bust,” and met with the unpredictability of highs and lows throughout the duration of the campaign, the short-term reward may pay its dividends, but the ultimate result will find you behind the one who’s always in the hunt, always has a chance, and never, seemingly, has a night off.

Over the past decade, that’s been the mantra of Chris Windom.

Of course, he’s won his fair share of feature events in his USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car career. His 23 series victories equal that of A.J. Foyt and Roger McCluskey for 22nd all-time entering the 32nd edition of NOS Energy Drink Indiana Sprint Week on July 18-27.

The beginning of his season came with a different set of circumstances, however.

After two highly successful tenures at Baldwin Brothers Racing, which resulted in a pair of ISW titles in 2011 and 2018, plus a USAC national title in 2017, the team unexpectedly shuttered its doors.

Although this could’ve proven to be a major setback, at least in the short term, for Windom, the core of the group – Windom and crew chief Derek Claxton – stuck together when they signed on with Goacher Racing, winning the first race out of the box in February at Bubba Raceway Park in Ocala, Fla.

Throughout the season, the team has been consistent, rattling off 11 finishes inside the top-10 through the first 12 races of the season, including becoming the first team to reach multiple wins with a May triumph at Tri-City Speedway in Granite City, Ill.

Consistency is of utmost importance in winning a title, and Windom has done just that during ISW, with 45 top-10 finishes in 68 starts, a percentage of 66%. He’s also finished in the top-five on 24 of 68 occasions, or 35% of the time.

Those are pretty solid numbers, considering his most recent Indiana Sprint Week win came eight years ago, in 2011 at the Terre Haute Action Track. But to win a title, it takes more than victories alone. In fact, it takes more than consistency too.

You’ve got to have the driver, crew chief and all facets of the team in perfect harmony.

“It’s a week of consistency, that’s for sure, between driver, crews, owner, everything,” Windom explained. “You’ve got to be on point that week. It seems the last few years that Derek Claxton and I have jelled together during those long, grueling weeks, whether it’s Indiana Sprint Week, Eastern Storm or anytime we have a long stretch, we seem to enjoy it. So far, we’ve had success with it. You have to have a little luck thrown into it too.”

To illustrate the fact of how tough it is to succeed on the national tour, or in a shorter spurt such as ISW, consider this. Windom’s two wins and nine top-fives in 12 season starts only have him fourth in the USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car Series standings.

The standards have changed on what is considered a “good” or “bad” night at the track in recent times. Riding out an ill-handling car, having a driver error or getting caught up in something not of your doing and finishing mid-pack on just one of the eight nights of ISW, could prove to be the fly in the ointment.

Driver and team have to be engaged and locked down to get every spot and point possible.

“The competition is so tough right now,” Windom pointed out. “A bad night at Sprint Week may be a 10th place. Anymore, you’ve got to be in the top-five every night, I feel like, to be in contention. That’s a tough feat when you’re running against 10 to 12 guys who can win every night. We seemed to have capitalized on it the last few years. So far, I’ve been really happy with our speed this year.

“I think we’re going to be in good shape to get another one this year.”

VENRAY, The Netherlands – Loris Hezemans won an exciting 100-lap ELITE 1 oval race at Raceway Venray on Sunday with the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series.

The Dutchman moved into the lead on lap 86 and fended off all attacks until the checkered flag. Driving the No. 50 Hendriks Motorsport Ford , the 22-year old son of motorsport icon Toine Hezemans grabbed his third series win, second of the season and first on an oval.

After starting second, Hezemans spent the first half of the race in a fierce battle for the lead with polesitter Jacques Villeneuve. The Canadian defended the lead well, and it was Hezemans who ended up losing a spot on lap 54 to Stienes Longin.

Hezemans moved back to second on a restart at lap 73, when Villeneuve and Longin collided ahead of him and the Canadian slipped down the order. The Dutchman then hunted down Longin for the lead and made a brilliant move to overtake the 27-year-old.

The Hendriks Motorsport driver also topped the Junior Trophy classification.

“It couldn’t have gone any better for us here at Raceway Venray, but I’m still a little bit frustrated about missing the pole position,” said Hezemans. “I really wanted to give my fans here at my home race a great spectacle. It was 100 laps of action and I had some great duels with Stienes and especially Jacques.

“I’m very happy and I thank my team for the great job they did all season long.”

The contact between Longin and Villeneuve resulted in a penalty for the Belgian, who crossed the finish line second but was demoted to 13th place.

Nicolo Rocca ended up second and secured his third podium finish of the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series season. Despite his worst result of his season, Longin retained the ELITE 1 point lead by seven over Hezemans, who took over second place from Rocca.

“It was a nice and clean race,” said Rocca, who will enter the playoffs eight points behind. “I was focused since this morning to get into the rhythm and to score a solid result here at Venray. The restarts were really good and I never lost a position. The contact between Stienes and Jacques helped me a lot. I was told about Stienes’s penalty so I relaxed in the last laps and came home a good second.”

Villeneuve led the race until lap 72 but fell back to fourth after the contact with the No. 11 PK Carsport Chevrolet Camaro. Despite some damage to his No. 32 Go Fas Racing Camaro, the former Indy 500 winner grabbed his second Euro Series podium finish.

“The car was really hard to drive in the end, but it was good overall,” said Villeneuve, who led the most laps. “It was very loose and it took always three or four laps to get up to full speed. Stienes was a little bit too aggressive and I had to back out. I ended up in the marbles and the choice was to hit him or the wall. It doesn’t matter, as I had a great battle with Loris. That’s what we love, clean racing and intense duels.”

Three-time champion Ander Vilarino was fourth in his No. 48 Racing Engineering Ford Mustang and scored important points in the last ELITE 1 race of the regular season.

Frederic Gabillon wasn’t able to contend for the win, but closed the top-5 driving the No. 3 RDV Competition Chevrolet Camaro.

Vilarino’s teammate Romain Iannetta was sixth ahead of Ulysse Delsaux. The Frenchman was second in the Junior Trophy classification and was rewarded with four bonus points for gaining the most positions during the 100-lap race at Venray.

Reigning champion Alon Day brought home an eighth place finish, edging Salvador Tineo and Henri Tuomaala, who topped the Challenger Trophy classification for the sixth time.

BRADFORD, England -- Rhian Brewster's intention to prove he has all the tools to thrive in attack under Jurgen Klopp was underlined in another impressive preseason display as Liverpool won 3-1 at Bradford City.

Brewster, 19, provided two goals and an assist against Tranmere Rovers on Thursday evening and was on the scoresheet again at Valley Parade.

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The striker -- brilliant off the ball and a constant nuisance to the opposition defence -- finished a rapid counter-attack featuring Ryan Kent and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

Brewster reacted quickest to the rebound off the England international's shot, which he squeezed in from a tight angle.

It was Liverpool's third goal on Sunday afternoon after a James Milner brace had put them in control.

The midfielder's first came courtesy of his effort from distance being deflected in by a James Vaughan header, before he converted from the penalty spot within two minutes with Kent impeded in the area.

Bradford, who had a Ben Richards-Everton goal disallowed for offside in the first-half, finally breached the defence of the European champions on 80 minutes.

Adam Lewis tripped Clayton Donaldson and Eoin Doyle coolly slotted the resulting spot kick in a game that raised funds for the Darby Rimmer MND Foundation, which was launched by former Liverpool and Bradford defender Stephen Darby following his MND diagnosis and retirement from football last year.

Liverpool's preseason preparations will continue in the United States, with the squad flying out from Merseyside on Tuesday morning.

Klopp's men will tackle Borussia Dortmund at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana, Sevilla at Boston's Fenway Park and Sporting at the Yankee Stadium in New York.

A test with Napoli at Murrayfield follows, before they face Lyon in Geneva and close off their build-up to 2019-20 by contesting the Community Shield with Manchester City on Aug. 4.

First-half team: Mignolet, Clyne, Phillips, Lovren, Larouci, Milner, Lallana, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Wilson, Kent, Brewster.

Second-half team: Mignolet, Hoever, Matip, Gomez, Lewis, Fabinho, Woodburn, Jones, Duncan, Origi, Millar. Additional substitutes: Atherton, Johnston.

ATLANTA -- Before the start of the 2019 Major League Soccer season, Atlanta United were riding high. And for good reason.

While the 2018 MLS Cup winner lost head coach Tata Martino and spark plug Miguel Almiron in the offseason, it replaced that duo with former Ajax manager Frank de Boer and Pity Martinez, the reigning South American Footballer of the Year who joined the Five Stripes for a reported MLS-record $17 million. A preseason 7-1 destruction of the Seattle Sounders and 2-2 draw with juggernaut-in-waiting LAFC confirmed the reasons for excitement from the league's best new fan base.

Then, disaster.

The cracks first showed in a 3-1 loss to Herediano in the CONCACAF Champions League (CCL) round of 16. A 4-0 victory in the return leg got United through to the next round, but they lost their league opener to D.C. United, were pasted by Monterrey in the CCL and posted a pair of 1-1 home draws against expansion side FC Cincinnati and the Philadelphia Union. Add loses to the Columbus Crew and FC Dallas and uninspiring wins against traditional bottom dwellers the New England Revolution and the Colorado Rapids -- during which De Boer subbed off an ineffectual and frustrated Martinez -- and one of the league's premier franchises found itself scuffling for the first time in its history.

"There was definitely frustration early on in the season from players, from fans," team captain Michael Parkhurst told ESPN FC. "We could hear the tenseness early on at home games."

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As the calendar flipped to May, Atlanta United sat on just eight points from seven games in MLS and had been knocked out of the CCL.

Perhaps the poor results shouldn't have come as a surprise. "I think we were probably a little naive to think that we were going to come into the season and pick up right where we left off since we lost the best player in the league and then changed coaching staffs," Parkhurst said. "It's a big change."

Curtis Jenkins, president of supporters' group Footie Mob, agrees. "What we had heard from the beginning was that the system was very similar to Tata's," he said. "I think we were all hoping that it would be a bit more seamless than it was. But, obviously, it wasn't."

The focus shifted from dominating the early stages of the 2019 to merely surviving. Parkhurst and some of the older players on the team harped on a theme: the season is long and repeating as champion is hard -- the LA Galaxy in 2011 and 2012 were the last team to do so -- so don't panic. What they didn't want to do was follow Toronto FC's path, which saw the club win MLS Cup in 2017 but never get on track the following year and finish in 19th overall.

The first sign that things might be turning around came in Kansas City in early May. Atlanta United went into one of MLS' most intimidating venues and dominated, winning 3-0 (1.52 to .62 on expected goals) and stifling Sporting Kansas City's attack. For Parkhurst, it was the squad's most complete game of the season.

"I think the belief was there before within the team, but going out and doing it and having a performance like that as a team helps," he said. "Everyone gets satisfied when you win a game, even if you don't deserve it, but it's a better feeling when you go out there and you dominate. You play exactly how you trained, and it just works out."

Under Martino, United played fast and loose, pressing whenever possible then settling into a defensive shape with whoever was left, with Almiron's lightning transitions featuring prominently. De Boer opted for a more organized, defensive focus.

"Frank wants the whole team to be together," Parkhurst said. "You either do it or don't do it."

That cohesion takes time to master, and it's coming together. While there have been some setbacks, like a recent 5-1 midweek destruction in Chicago against a Fire team desperate for a result, United have won 22 points in their past 12 games. That's good enough for 1.83 points per match, close to their 2.03-points-per-game figure from 2018. They are in third place, a point out of second and just six points out of first with two games in hand on the Philadelphia Union.

The defensive system is taking root. According to American Soccer Analysis, through their first 17 games, they gave up just 9.3 shots per game -- second in MLS behind LAFC's 9.2 -- while conceding just 15 goals, compared with 44 through 34 contests last season. The 2018 United squad posted an expected goals total of 37.8, more than six fewer than the number of goals they actually conceded. This season's team reversed that trend, with their 18.6 expected goals sitting 3 1/2 goals higher than the total conceded. Maybe that discrepancy is luck. Or, perhaps, De Boer's organized defense led by All-Stars Leandro Gonzalez Pirez and Brad Guzan and the emergence of Miles Robinson is making chances more difficult for the opposition in a way that the expected goals total doesn't show.

Confidence is building. Before a recent home game against the Montreal Impact, the squad walked into Mercedes-Benz Stadium with the swagger of champions. They looked calm in their suits, most sporting dress shoes but Brek Shea and recent addition Justin Meram, who would score both goals in the 2-1 victory, opting for bright white sneakers. An hour before kickoff, the stadium felt like the Mercedes-Benz Stadium of 2018, the fans loud, boisterous and in number.

The match against the Impact wasn't an overwhelming performance. United kept the visitors in the game for too long. They gave up a goal when Martinez lost the ball in midfield, a poor choice and lack of effort that had Guzan gesturing angrily and demonstratively at the South American star. They did, however, prevail.

United aren't a finished product. But also, it's only July. They are getting better, getting healthy, getting Ezequiel Barco, Tito Villalba, Josef Martinez and George Bello back at some point.

"Give us another four to six weeks and I think you'll see Atlanta United running on all cylinders," Footie Mob's Jenkins said. "We'll see the team we've been expecting, very unfairly, since CCL."

They are a team no one will want to meet in the postseason, a squad that knows how to win because, after all, they did it not so long ago.

"We understand what's ahead," Parkhurst said. "We understand what it takes to do well in the playoffs."

As all of England held its breath (or watched Wimbledon and F1 at Silverstone), Australia's XI and the England Lions played a day's cricket at Canterbury that was something closer to a gentle sigh.

Away from Lord's and the World Cup final, there were regular score updates and television screens to be found if required, but in the middle, the Australians maintained their run of muscular batting performances, this time against far stronger opposition.

There was yet another century from Matthew Wade, his third on this trip alone, and a second of the tour for Travis Head, who among the raft of contenders trying to join Steven Smith, David Warner and Usman Khawaja over the next couple of weeks in Canterbury and Southampton, looks the most certain member of Australia's top six for the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston starting August 1.

A good deal of merit could be attached to these runs. They were made in conditions so favourable that Lions' captain Lewis Gregory sent the Australians in after morning rain. This was also against a bowling attack far superior to anything he's faced so far this summer.

In Sam Curran, there was a left-armer who may yet figure in the Ashes after his strong displays against India last year, while Gregory and Jamie Porter are two of Division One's leading lights. Ollie Robinson and Jack Leach completed a more than sturdy quintet, albeit with only rudimentary preparation for operating as a group given the Lions only assembled on Friday night and had a solitary training session before the opening day.

Curran, Gregory and Porter could all be moderately happy with their work, as Robinson and Leach faced somewhat more punishment. Leach's day was perhaps made more vexing by the fact he was not once able to bowl to a right-hander all day.

The early going was not easy, as Joe Burns found when he was pinned lbw by Gregory after finding a trio of early boundaries but also offering a half chance to slip. Marcus Harris looked to be judging the whereabouts of his off stump very well in fighting his way to 34 before furnishing Gregory with a second wicket, feeling for a ball going across him and taken in the slips. And Kurtis Patterson was dropped in the cordon before going on to 32, whereupon his forward defensive stroke was punctured by Porter from around the wicket.

Head, noticeably, found the best rhythm of the top four. He rotated strike and found the boundary regularly without resorting to any of the wilder shots that prevented his home Test series against India last summer from reaching the heights that several of his starts hinted at. Reaching 50 in 70 balls and a century in 147, he offered a stern celebration towards the touring team's viewing area before resuming an occupation that would last all day and accumulate 20 boundaries.

Wade's innings was more a case of acceleration, as he spent 47 balls over his first 15 runs then just 75 balls for the next 85 to reach three figures. The boundaries were clattered 15 times and cleared once, with the stand only ended when Curran won an lbw verdict against Wade with the second new ball.

Wade's stand with Head was worth 219, leaving Mitchell Marsh to accompany the South Australia captain to stumps early enough for the closing passages at Lord's to be viewed by both sides.

New Zealand 241 for 8 (Nicholls 55, Woakes 3-37) tied with England 241 (Stokes 84*, Buttler 59, Neesham 3-43)
Super over England 15 beat New Zealand 15 on boundaries scored

As it happened

It was never going to be easy, was it? Two teams without a World Cup title between them in 44 years of the men's competition. After 100 overs, the last couple of which contained almost as much drama as a few previous finals in their entirety, nothing could separate England and New Zealand. For the first time in World Cup history, a Super Over was required to determine the winner.

Asked to score 16 from six balls, Jimmy Neesham struck Jofra Archer's second legitimate delivery way back into the Mound Stand, making it seven needed from four. A brace of twos followed, before Archer's bumper took Neesham off strike. Martin Guptill, at the end of a tournament of personal trial, asked to hit two more otherwise England would take the trophy on boundaries scored. Archer found a yorker, Guptill found deep midwicket and Jason Roy's throw found Guptill short; Jos Buttler completed a full-length stumping to end all those years of hurt and an afternoon of exquisite agony.

England had only got close in their chase thanks to Buttler and Ben Stokes, whose 110-run stand lifted the home nation from peril at 86 for 4. The pair walked out again to scramble 15 from an over of Trent Boult: pressure back on New Zealand. They responded by sending out Neesham, a man who not so long ago was contemplating quitting the game, to face Archer, in his 14th ODI. Only one man could finish a hero.

More to follow...

Editor's note: This story originally ran on June 25. It has been updated to account for Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer's historic five-set Wimbledon final on Sunday, with Djokovic winning 7-6 (5), 1-6, 7-6 (4), 4-6, 13-12 (3). This was the first singles match at Wimbledon decided by a tiebreaker.

On Sunday, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer entered the record books when their Wimbledon championship match reached 12-all in the fifth set. Djokovic won the ensuing tiebreaker 7-3, marking the first Wimbledon final decided by a final-set tiebreaker after a new rule was instituted this year at Wimbledon that would trigger a tiebreak if the final set of a match reached 12-12. Previously, Wimbledon did not use a final set tiebreak, instead playing the match out to conclusion.

But as good as this reform looks, Wimbledon's transformative decision to adopt a final-set tiebreaker may not solve the worst feature of the overtime fifth set: the impact it has on the winner's immediate future. As Roger Federer said of extra-long matches at Wimbledon in 2016: "It's very cool. ... It goes further and further. [But] the chances get slimmer and slimmer to win that next round."

How slim?

Since 2000, the fifth set lasted for longer than 20 games (or, 10-10) in 28 men's matches at Wimbledon. On only two of those occasions did the winner advance beyond the next round.

In 2017, Novak Djokovic was unable to complete his fourth-round match on the scheduled day because of the time soaked up by Gilles Muller's 15-13 fifth-set upset of No. 4 seed Rafael Nadal (Muller would lose his next match in five sets). Djokovic later said, "For a player to play a five- to six-hour match, come back the next day and perform, it's not really what your body's looking for. ... If you are already getting to 6-all in the fifth set, you might as well just decide it in a tiebreak."

The advantage final set produced a perfect storm at Wimbledon last year. Three of the extra-time men's matches occurred in the quarterfinals and semis -- Kevin Anderson over Federer in the quarterfinals (13-11 fifth set) and Anderson over John Isner (26-24) and Djokovic over Nadal (10-8) in the semifinals -- and they unfairly disrupted the schedule.

Worse, Anderson -- who went into overtime to beat Federer in the quarters -- was beyond useless in the championship match against Djokovic following his marathon 26-24 semifinal win over Isner. Anderson not only lost the final after his ordeal, four of his toenails later fell off because of the punishment.

And contrary to the mythology that surrounds such matches, the length of Anderson's match didn't have the crowd entirely enthralled. One fan eager to see Djokovic and Nadal in the second semifinal yelled, "Come on, I came to see Rafa."

Anderson heard.

"It's also tough being out there, listening to some of the crowd," he said later. "Hopefully they appreciated the battle that we faced out there ... [but] they've paid to see two matches, and they came pretty close to only seeing one match."

A tiebreaker at 12-all in the third may not be such a heavy lift for the women, who have demonstrated that, if necessary, they can play five-set matches. The Wimbledon solution means they might play the equivalent of four sets plus a tiebreaker. But for the men, the 12-all tiebreaker means the winner in effect plays a six-set match. And that's a lot to recover from in as little as 36 hours.

"I think a tiebreaker at 6-all creates more drama," Greg Rusedski, a former US Open finalist who now works as a commentator for Sky Sports, said last fall when Wimbledon announced its decision. "It also has the added advantage that players will be less tired for the next round. A whole extra set will take the legs away even more."

Initiating the change was a bold reform by the tradition-minded All England Club, and most stakeholders welcomed it. Marathon match veteran Isner -- who arguably has the most skin in this game, having played the two longest matches in Wimbledon history -- said that the change was "long overdue." He, like Federer, endorsed Wimbledon's new rule.

The Australian Open, taking its cues from Wimbledon, soon followed suit. Like the US Open, the Australian Open now ends final sets with a tiebreaker at 6-6, albeit the 10-point "match tiebreaker" variant on the common 7-point one. The French Open is the lone holdout, continuing the advantage-set tradition.

Announcing the scoring change in October, All England Club chairman Philip Brook said in the statement: "We feel that a tiebreak at 12-12 strikes an equitable balance between allowing players ample opportunity to complete the match to advantage, while also providing certainty that the match will reach a conclusion in an acceptable time frame." Brook's use of the term "ample opportunity" is a little odd. It implies that ending a match in a tiebreaker is a regrettable necessity, perhaps even a slight to the game.

So which Grand Slam does it best?

Wimbledon's leadership role is earned and deserved, but it ranks third of four majors when it comes to deciding final sets. The best solution is the newest: the Australian Open's use of the match tiebreaker, which is also used in place of a third set in tour-level doubles matches. The 10-pointer is longer than the common 7-point tiebreak, diminishing the role of luck and bolstering the idea that the solution is not just practical but unique. Who's going to find that disappointing, at a time when soccer matches are decided by penalty-kick shootouts and the NFL embraces sudden death in overtime?

The next-best solution is the US Open's standard option: a common 7-point tiebreaker at 6-all in the final set. Many matches have been decided that way, and only staunch traditionalists have complained.

Wimbledon does still beat out the French Open solution, which is to just stick with the same old, same old. Clearly, the French Open is trying to take the high ground of tradition by refusing to change. But it's also true that clay isn't nearly as hard on the body as grass or hard courts.

Isner is the big winner here. His place in tennis history was assured when he won that epic, three-day 2010 Wimbledon first-round match with Nicolas Mahut, 70-68 in the final set. Then came that 26-24 loss to Anderson last year. Those moments made headlines. He cherishes them. But he has no desire to repeat them.

Like so many others who survived overtime five-set marathons, he lost in the next round after beating Mahut. And isn't winning the point?

Novak Djokovic outlasted Roger Federer in an epic five-set match Sunday, winning the first fifth-set tiebreaker in a Wimbledon's men's final to repeat as the men's champion for the second time and win his fifth title at the All England Club.

The fifth-set tiebreaker was also the first in any men's final at the four Grand Slams.

The top-seeded Djokovic defeated Federer 7-6 (5), 1-6, 7-6 (4), 4-6, 13-12 (3) to remain unbeaten against the second-seeded Swiss in three Wimbledon final matchups. Djokovic also won in 2014 and '15, when he repeated as champion for the first time.

He won his first Wimbledon title in 2011.

At four hours and 55 minutes, it was the longest final in Wimbledon history, featuring 68 games, 422 points and 35 aces.

Djokovic, 32, saved two match points to reach the fifth-set tiebreaker, becoming the first man since 1948 to save championship points in the final and go on to win.

"Unfortunately in these kinds of matches,'' Djokovic said, "one of the players has to lose.''

Federer, at 37 years and 340 days old, was seeking to become the oldest men's Grand Slam winner in the Open era (since 1968).

It is Djokovic's 16th Grand Slam title overall, moving to within four of Federer's record 20.

Wimbledon traditionally didn't play tiebreakers in the final set of matches but introduced one for this year if the score reaches 12-12.

ESPN Stats & Information and The Associated Press contributed to this report.