It takes the 29-year-old Serb to 12 grand slam titles, joint fourth on the all-time list with Australian Roy Emerson, behind Rafael Nadal and Pete Sampras on 14 and Roger Federer on 17. Only Agassi, by a matter of 24 days, was older.
Advertisement
“He’s been at the top of the game now for a number of years and is still improving”, Murray said. “It hasn’t happened for an extremely long time and it will take a long time for it to happen again”. “Me personally being here, it sucks to lose the match but I’m proud being part of today”.
Both are two-time Grand Slam champions.
Murray, who lost in five sets to Djokovic in last year’s semi-finals, also came off worse in straight sets against Nadal in 2011 and 2014. He’s only the third man to win four consecutive majors, joining Laver and Budge.
Murray came into Paris having defeated world number one Novak Djokovic in the final of the Rome Masters but under a cloud following the end of his coaching relationship with Amelie Mauresmo.
Djokovic fell to the floor after winning the final point, embracing Murray before drawing a heart shape with his racquet on the court and lying spread-eagled in the red clay.
“I’m sure that they already heard it million times, that we need a roof, that we need lights”, Djokovic said.
Andy Murray hopes his passion for breaking new ground can drive him to a first French Open final.
Djokovic could not have played a better first game, landing a ideal drop shot at the end of a long opening rally and breaking the Scot to love. Djoker gets 30 points with swashbuckling serve but Murray has the last laugh in the second and third game of set 1. Murray might have become an accomplished clay-court player in the last two years, but Djokovic is a long-time master of the surface. However, the Scot was repeatedly annoyed during the match by both the overhead “spidercam” camera and by spectators calling out as he served. Murray had looked to have few answers in the baseline battle, with Djokovic unerringly consistent in his strokeplay.
When Djokovic sketched a valentine to his fans and then laid down on his back, it repeated a gesture made famous by three-time French Open champion Gustavo Kuerten.
Any argument that Djokovic would be an ersatz French champion because he hasn’t faced either Nadal, who withdrew with a left-wrist injury, or Federer, who stayed home with an aching back, becomes totally spurious when one considers the solid-gold quality of the opponent who will be yelling, cursing and beating himself up on the other side of the net. He then needed another five sets to beat French wildcard Mathias Bourgue, the world 164.
“It’s definitely one of the most special moments of my career”, Djokovic said after the match.
His forehand, certainly the weaker of his groundstrokes, was the key shot while Djokovic’s forehand was all over the place. Djokovic won the fourth set and finally got his hands on the Coupe des Mousquetaires, the one trophy that was missing from his cabinet. With the Brit down 0-30, Djokovic played a flawless drop shot to draw his opponent in.
According to the International Tennis Federation (ITF), tennis players must have played a minimum of three Davis Cup ties in the four-year Olympic cycle. His nearly childlike desire to be loved has come through in a number of his postmatch news conferences.
Advertisement
But to do that he would have to do what he did in the Italian capital – play aggressive, mix it up and get under Djokovic’s skin. The encouragement was near universal (or sounded like it) Sunday, so much that the famous, sing-song, soccer “Ole, Ole” chant was replaced with “Nole, Nole, Nole, Nole!” “Nole! Nole!” and it had to feel good.
