Novak Djokovic won his first Wimbledon title with a four-set victory over defending champion Rafael Nadal.
The Serbian second seed went into his first Wimbledon final as the underdog despite losing just once all year and being confirmed as the new world number one on Monday.
But Nadal - a two-time Wimbledon champion with 10 Grand Slams to his name - had no answer to Djokovic's power and accuracy for most of the match, as the 24-year-old won 6-4 6-1 1-6 6-3.
Two-time Australian champion Djokovic now has three Grand Slam titles to his name and has won an astonishing 48 out of 49 matches in 2011.
His 41 consecutive wins - until that one defeat to Roger Federer in Paris - included four over Nadal in the finals of Masters Series events, two of them on the Spaniard's favoured clay.
But Nadal had not been beaten at Wimbledon since a five-set loss to Federer in the final of 2007, and his record against Djokovic in grand slams was 5-0.
The first set went with serve as both men found their range right from the off.
But the Serbian slowly began to come out on top in the long, thumping rallies, and two stunning forehand winners took him to 30-30 with his opponent serving to stay in the first set.
Suddenly Nadal cracked, dumping a tame shot into the net to hand Djokovic the set point and then missing with his favourite forehand down the line.
A lucky net cord took Nadal to 0-30 in the opening game of the second set but Djokovic was like a rock, and it was Nadal who was making the errors - more of them than he had in four sets of his semi-final against Andy Murray.
It was a key moment. Djokovic promptly created two more break points in the next game and he took the first with a beautiful dinked backhand off a Nadal drop-volley, celebrating as if he had won the match.
Murray had let the Spaniard off the hook but Djokovic simply got better, breaking again in the sixth game and clinching the set with ease.
The question was whether the 24-year-old would be able to keep up his almost superhuman level, and the answer arrived in the second game of the third set when a forehand error was followed by a backhand one and Nadal had his first break from his first opening.
The crowd had been waiting for a fightback, and they erupted. Nadal began to slow things down, forcing Djokovic to apply the pace, and his error count soared.
He saved two break points in game six but a third brought his first double fault of the match, and Nadal served out another emphatic set to love.
The fourth set reverted to the tight, tense tennis of the first, until the eighth game, when once again Nadal crumbled - almost from out of the blue.
He started the game with a double fault, and two more errors made it 0-40.
He saved one break point with a stunning forehand but on the second - and not for the first time - he blasted a mistimed forehand long.
Djokovic, the man who dreamed of lifting the Wimbledon title as a child, would serve for it.
A brave serve and volley gave him a first match point and this time Nadal had no answer, drilling a backhand long.
The title was Djokovic's and he knelt down, picked up a blade of grass and ate it before throwing his racquets into the crowd.
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