A few times in the past fortnight, Murray has reminded anyone asking that, although he might be the first British player to reach the men’s final at Roland Garros in 79 years, that does not define the limits of his ambition.
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“It’s really my job to make it as hard as possible for him so that hopefully he has a few doubts, which all athletes get, at different stages”.
Here at SportPulse the general consensus is that this will be Djokovic in 4 sets but maybe this is Murray’s time to end another drought in British tennis. But I remember most of my matches against Novak, more than I do against others, because they have been most of the biggest matches for me. In both those games he won in straight sets, and Novak has only dropped two sets on route to the final and that was in the same match against Roberto Bautista Agut.
The last British man to win in Paris was Fred Perry in 1935 while Bunny Austin was the last finalist from his country in 1937. “He always seeks to improve his game and get better, which I do, too”.
World No 1 Novak Djokovic stands in the way between the 29-year-old Scot and La Coupe des Mousquetaires – the tournament’s famous trophy.
“I’m sure that it’s going to be a final with a lot of emotions and a lot of exchanges from the baseline because we have similar styles of game”. Its the first time I have played a semifinal on the Suzanne Lenglen court, said the top seed.
It has meant that Murray’s entourage, the subject of much discussion in his turbulent couple of early-round matches, has been smaller than usual during the world No2’s run to the final. Murray was by far the calmer man that day and, as he showed in his semi-final against Stan Wawrinka, when he can stay fired up but focused, he is a very risky customer indeed. Interestingly, Murray has faced Djokovic in six grand slam finals – losing all four in Melbourne, but winning against him in London and NY.
Djokovic came so close previous year but fell to Stan Wawrinka in the finals.
“There’s not many players that do that now because, you know, before obviously three of the slams were played on grass, and now they’re on the different surfaces”. Nearly the reverse of what happened five years ago when he had four days off week two after Fabio Fognini opted out of his quarterfinal.
This will be their seventh Grand Slam final against each other, tenth Grand Slam meeting overall and second overall at the French Open. And to have the rain plus the added pressure of avoiding long matches has to weigh on him. Likewise, Federer lost to Nadal in the final three times between 2006 and 2008 before defeating Robin Soderling to complete his career Grand Slam in 2009.
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Victory on Sunday would also give him the “Novak Slam” as he already holds the Wimbledon, US and Australian Open titles. But from last year, the belief that it was possible was there – I was pretty close last year.
