FRENCH OPEN MEN’S TENNIS NEWS 2016 – IT’S DOWN TO TWO GUYS: NOVAK DJOKOVIC & ANDY MURRAY WILL BATTLE FOR THE PARIS SLAM TITLE MATCH

Written by: Staff on 3rd June 2016

French Open tennis tournament at Roland Garros

FRENCH OPEN MEN'S TENNIS NEWS 2016 - IT'S DOWN TO TWO GUYS: NOVAK DJOKOVIC & ANDY MURRAY WILL BATTLE FOR THE PARIS SLAM TITLE MATCH

epa05340708 Andy Murray of Britain in action against Richard Gasquet of France during their men's single quarter final match at the French Open tennis tournament at Roland Garros in Paris, France, 01 June 2016. EPA/IAN LANGSDON |

By Ricky Dimon

The undisputed two best players this season will battle for the French Open title on Sunday. That became a reality when Novak Djokovic and Andy Murrray cruised through their respective semifinal matches on Saturday afternoon. Djokovic sprinted past Dominic Thiem 6-2, 6-1, 6-4, while Murray beat defending champion Stan Wawrinka 6-4, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2.

Playing in a Grand Slam semifinal for the first time in his career, Thiem came out understandably nervous and committed 20 unforced errors to his opponent’s five in the first set. The 22-year-old Austrian heated up briefly for a 3-0 lead in the third, but Djokovic erased that deficit by taking six of the match’s last seven games.

“Best performance of the tournament,” the world No. 1 assured. “As I was hoping after the long fourth round that I’m going to start playing better as the tournament progresses, and that’s what’s happening now. So I’m very pleased with the way things are going. I managed to handle his heavy spin very well today, but I’m sure that, as I told him after the match, we’re going to see a lot of him in the future.”

Novak Djokovic of Serbia in action against Dominic Thiem of Austria during their men’s single semi final match at the French Open tennis tournament at Roland Garros in Paris, France, 03 June 2016. EPA/ETIENNE LAURENT

Dominic Thiem of Austria in action against Novak Djokovic of Serbia during their men’s single semi final match at the French Open tennis tournament at Roland Garros in Paris, France, 03 June 2016. EPA/ETIENNE LAURENT

“He was just too strong today,” Thiem said of Djokovic. “That’s all I can say. But still it inspires me to even work harder. I hope I get a new chance soon in the future…. It was a very good experience, obviously. Of course semis is a very good result for me, but right now I’m really still thinking about the match, still thinking about the loss, and after every loss I’m disappointed.”

Murray beat defending champion on Court Philippe Chatrier while Djokovic and Thiem were busy on Court Suzanne Lenglen. Like the top-seeded Serb, the world No. 2 endured his lone hiccup in the third set–which he ended up dropping with a donation of serve at 4-5. But Murray righted the ship immediately with an opening break in the fourth and at that point he was off to the races.

“To reach the finals of the French the first time, that’s a big moment for me,” Murray commented. “It’s not an easy thing to do. Like I said a few years ago, I never really expected to be able to do that. To play the way that I did today after a tough start to the tournament, yeah, (I) was just really, really happy with that.”

“The fact that I had won here before had given me more confidence in myself,” Wawrinka reflected. “I thought, ‘Oh, I can go deep in this tournament because I have done it once.’ So today I wanted to go as deep as possible. I wanted to do my best and do the same this year…. I think that Andy played really so well today. He was the strongest on the court. It’s as simple as that.”