At this wackiest of Wimbledons, it only figures the men's champion would credit a streaker for his first Grand Slam title.
Sure, Richard Krajicek's huge serve was the difference in his straight-sets victory over MaliVai Washington in Sunday's final.Sure, he became only the second unseeded champion in history beside Boris Becker in 1985.
Sure, he's the first Dutch player to win a Grand Slam tournament.
Yet even Krajicek paid tribute to the day's other precedent-setting event: the appearance of a streaker on Centre Court.
As the players posed for photographs at the net before the match, the 23-year-old topless blonde woman leaped from the stands, raced down the side of the court and, in front of the Royal Box, flipped up her only garment, a tiny white apron.
"I was a little bit tight, and then she comes out, and at least for me it put a smile on my face," Krajicek said. "In a way it was good, I think. At least for me, it broke the tension a little bit."
Washington, too, said the streaker lightened the atmosphere.
"I thought it was a photographer at first," he said. "Then I looked over and I see this streaker. She smiled at me. She had on an apron. She lifted it up and she was still smiling at me. Then I got flustered and, boom, three sets later I was gone."
Even the normally stuffy guardians of the All England Club found the incident amusing after rain had disrupted play for the fifth straight day and forced the tournament to go into a third week.
When Wimbledon went into overtime today, Martina Hingis became the tournament's youngest champion. She teamed with Helena Sukova to beat Meredith McGrath and Larisa Nieland 5-7, 7-5, 6-1 in women's doubles.
At 15 years and 282 days, the Swiss star is three days younger than Lottie Dod was in 1887 when she won the first of her five singles titles.
"It's great to win at Wimbledon. For every tennis player it's a big goal to win Wimbledon, even the doubles," Hingis said. "Hopefully one day I'll do it in the singles, too."
Hingis and Sukova needed only three minutes today to win the final two games in the match suspended Sunday because of darkness. Hingis clinched the victory with a backhand down the line at Nieland's feet that the Latvian failed to get back over the net.
The other main action left over from the first 13 days was the mixed doubles, with both Sukova and Nieland also involved in the quarterfinal. If they met in the final, they would have played four matches each in one day.
Besides the rain, the tournament was hit by unthinkable upsets that decimated the men's field during the first week and freak injuries that knocked out Boris Becker and a court-coverer.
So many bizarre things occurred that Krajicek wondered whether he might be celebrating too soon after Washington hit a backhand into the net on match point, Krajicek had just dropped to his knees, his hands over his eyes, and rolled onto his back in celebration.
"I was unbelievably happy," Krajicek said. "Then I thought, `Is the match really over?' For a split second, I thought, `Am I making a fool of myself?' Nobody started laughing too much so I thought that I won."
In the first Wimbledon final between two unseeded players, the 6-foot-5 Dutchman overpowered the American with his serve - hitting 14 aces and losing serve only once. He broke once in each of the first two sets, and twice in the third.
Washington was left lunging time and again as Krajicek fired down serves at speeds of up to 129 mph.
"The serve was the difference in the match," Washington said. "I venture he averaged a good 120 on his first serves. When a guy does that, it's tough to break. It puts everything on you to try to hold."
Although Krajicek's game is dominated by his serve, he proved again that he is not a one-dimensional player. He kept Washington under pressure with sharp returns and ripped 10 passing shot winners.
"My game just improved," said Krajicek, who had lost in the first round the past two years. "I never really agreed with the people who said I should win Wimbledon four years ago already, because I only had the feeling that I had a serve. But now I'm following it up with the return and my footwork has improved. . . . I think next year I might get a seed."
Krajicek's victory ensures he will move into the top 10. He said he will shoot for "top five, or maybe even more."
"If he keeps having results like this," Washington said, "heck, he could to go to the top."
Washington was the first black men's finalist at Wimbledon since Arthur Ashe won the title in 1975. Ranked No. 20, Washington had never gone past the second round in six previous appearances at Wimbledon.
"The whole week, the whole fortnight has been a great experience," he said. "It's what you dream about, and my dream almost came true at this tournament . . . I can say for the fortnight I was the second best player in the world."