The 29-year-old Djokovic, who won a break in the very first game but was broken back in the next though having saved three break points, failed to hold his own game until 40 minutes into the final in the sixth game.
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Spain’s Garbine Muguruza holds the trophy after winning the final of the French Open tennis tournament against Serena Williams of the U.S.in two sets 7-5, 6-4, at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris, France, June 4, 2016.
Roger Federer views Novak Djokovic’s feat of completing the career Grand Slam as being “great for tennis” after the all-conquering world number one ended his wait for an elusive first French Open title on Sunday.
The 29-year-old is now the reigning champion of all four major tournaments: the Australian, French and USA opens and Wimbledon. Novak believes he can do it : ‘I don’t want to sound arrogant, but II really think everything is achievable in life.
“I felt today something that I never felt before at Roland Garros, I felt the love of the crowd, I drew the heart on the court, like Guga which he gave me permission to do”.
“I’m trying to enjoy and cherish this moment”, he said. The “Super Slam” is a term given for winning all four Grand Slams and an Olympic gold medal in the same calendar year. “But, you know, I don’t think about it right now”.
His last loss in a Grand Slam was in last year’s French Open final to Stan Wawrinka.
Although the Scot had won only two of their last 14 meetings, one of those came just before the tournament in Rome, boosting hopes that Murray could pull off what surely would be the greatest achievement of his career.
He served for the title at 5-2 in the fourth set before Murray broke and held to get to 4-5. “Nole! Nole!” let him hear it. Djokovic’s response?
Murray said: “I have played some of my best tennis on clay, for sure, over the last few weeks and definitely last couple of years”.
Djokovic broke again to begin the fourth set and, although he had a few missteps in the closing games, his arduous journey to history was soon complete.
The Serbian, who now has 12 slam titles, said: “You train as a professional athlete to always be in the moment and focus on the next point and not care too much about what’s in the past or what is coming up because you can’t influence that”. I felt the tension and excitement, all the emotions.
“I have never had a clay-court season like that one, never won that many matches”. Started hitting the ball a bit close to the lines, and I was sort of dropping a bit far back behind the baseline.
“In the last point I don’t even remember what happened”.
Now Murray will target revenge should the pair meet on grass next month in the Wimbledon final. Just like he did against Wawrinka in the semi-finals, Murray was dictating play and in great shape, taking advantage of 13 unforced errors from Djokovic in the opening set, a lot of them off the forehand wing.
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An argument with the chair umpire towards the end of the first set seemed to energize Djokovic, however, and he stormed out to a 3-0 lead in the second set before winning, 6-1.
