The start of the men's doubles final usually means a stampede for the exit doors at the other grand slams.
Not at Wimbledon, where a capacity Centre Court crowd were rewarded with a masterclass from the world's leading exponents of the doubles craft.
Victory went to the defending champions, Canada's Daniel Nestor and Serbian Nenad Zimonjic, over the world's top-ranked pair, American twins Bob and Mike Bryan, but it was not until the fourth set that there was anything to separate them as they cancelled each other out with their brilliant serving.
With the three preceding sets having all gone to a tie-break and with just two break points, neither of them taken, to show for their efforts in 2¼ hour's play, a marathon five-setter looked on the cards.
But Nestor and Zimonjic finally took their chance to break at the start of the fourth set before wrapping up the match 7-6, 6-7, 7-6, 6-3.
The Bryan brothers, normally so ebullient on court, looked subdued by the quality of their opponents' play and managed just one of their trademark chest bumps in the entire match when they won a crucial point in the second-set tie-break.
The pair are keen musicians in their spare time, playing gigs on the men's tour as the 'Bryan Brothers Band', and have been joined from time to time for a bit of rapping by their pal Andy Roddick.
A bit of his on-court firepower would have come in handy yesterday as they slumped to their third Wimbledon final defeat, though they did manage to win it in 2006.
Zimonjic was the star of the show and Nestor was full of praise for what they have achieved. He said: "We've won back-to-back titles, which is incredible.
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