The Wimbledon Finals, July 2, 2011

Champions are made, not born.

Or, as Will Ferrell's Ricky Bobby often said in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby: "If you're not first, you're last!"

While the latter isn't quite true for those who lose Wimbledon finals-those individuals still get checks, trophies, and applause-the first most certainly is for those who emerge victorious. After three scintillating weeks, during which familiar faces Roger Federer, Venus and Serena Williams, Andy Roddick and Caroline Wozniacki were swept away in the tide of the fast, furious schedule, two champions remain: Petra Kvitova, of the Czech Republic, for the women, and Novak Djokovic, of Serbia, for the men. Both battled their way past former champions to earn their impressive achievements.

"Seriously, I lose because I am playing the best player of the moment, the best player of the world tomorrow, and I am the second," Spaniard Rafael Nadal, the defending Wimbledon Champion who lost a four-set final to Djokovic, said. "And when you play against these players and they are playing unbelievable, the normal thing is to lose."

Nadal, a two-time (2008, 2010) Wimbledon champion who nonetheless knew he would lose his #1-in-the-world ranking to Djokovic regardless of the final's outcome, became just the latest obstacle run over by the Djoker, as many call him, who improved his record in 2011 to a staggering 48-1.

"It's really hard to describe this day with any words except the best day of my life, most special day of my life," Djokovic said, after defeating the uber-talented Nadal 6-4, 6-1, 1-6, 6-3. "[This is] the tournament I always dreamed of winning."

He did just that by playing what he called "probably my best match on the grass courts ever", forcing the hobbled (recurring left foot injury) but athletic Nadal into defensive mode with whistling forehands and hard serves. He also took advantage of a few unforced errors by the 25-year-old Spaniard.

"I had to play better to win," Nadal said, "and I didn't today. I played a little bit less aggressive."

On the women's side, Kvitova faced off with another former Wimbledon champion, '04 queen Maria Sharapova, who was 17 then and entered the late stages of this tournament as the heavy favorite with her #5 ranking and her championship aura.

But Sharapova was outplayed from the start by Kvitova, a spry six-footer who sprayed forehands and backhands and waited out Sharapova's shaky serve (five double faults) in a 6-3, 6-4 championship match.

"I was surprised how I was feeling on the court," Kvitova said. "Because I was focused only on the point and on the game and not on the final."

A native of a tiny town-Fulnek-of 6,000 in the Czech Republic, Kvitova became, at 21, the youngest Wimbledon champion since Sharapova in '04.

"She created offensive opportunities from tough positions on the court--sometimes it's just too good," Sharapova said of the woman who killed off her bid for a fourth Major title.

While Djokovic's meteoric rise in 2011 had him in the headlines far before his defeat of Nadal, Kvitova said it was "probably yesterday" that she began dreaming of herself winning a Major. Today, she's a champion, and someone to watch in tennis.