PARIS UPDATE – FROM 10SBALLS – RICKY’S TENNIS PICKS AND PREVIEW FOR THE FRENCH OPEN FINAL: NOVAK DJOKOVIC VS. ANDY MURRAY

Written by: Staff on 4th June 2016

French Open tennis tournament at Roland Garros

PARIS UPDATE - FROM 10SBALLS - RICKY'S TENNIS PICKS AND PREVIEW FOR THE FRENCH OPEN FINAL: NOVAK DJOKOVIC VS. ANDY MURRAY

epa05334430 Novak Djokovic of Serbia in action against Aljaz Bedene of Britain during their men's single third round match at the French Open tennis tournament at Roland Garros in Paris, France, 28 May 2016.??? EPA/ROBERT GHEMENT |

By Ricky Dimon

Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray will be squaring off for the seventh time in a Grand Slam final when they battle for the French Open title on Sunday. Overall, they have faced each other on 33 previous occasions, with Djokovic leading the head-to-head series 23-10. The world No. 1 had been 12-1 in their last 13 meetings prior to last month’s Rome championship, but Murray ended the skid by pulling off a 6-3, 6-3 upset.

Despite that setback, Djokovic is still 4-1 lifetime at Murray’s expense on clay and shortly before their Rome showdown he beat the Scot 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 in the Madrid final. In their six major title matches, Djokovic is 4-2 (4-0 at the Australian Open, 0-1 at both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open).

Murray had never previously advanced this far at Roland Garros, in part because he went up against the Serb in last year’s semifinals. The Scot put up an impressive fight, but Djokovic prevailed 6-3, 6-3, 5-7, 5-7, 6-1 before falling to Stan Wawrinka two days later. On the other side of the draw this time around as the No. 2 seed, Murray has turned in his best-ever performance on the red dirt of Paris thanks to wins over Radek Stepanek, Mathias Bourgue, Ivo Karlovic, John Isner, Richard Gasquet, and Stan Wawrinka. The world No. 2 needed five sets to outlast both Stepanek and Bourgue, but he surrendered only two sets combined in his next four matches.

Djokovic has endured no such trouble en route to his fourth French Open final appearance. He ensured that another chapter in this rivalry would be written after he disposed of Yen-Hsun Lu, Steve Darcis, Aljaz Bedene, Roberto Bautista Agut, Tomas Berdych, and Dominic Thiem while dropping only one set to Bautista Agut in the process. Djokovic is now 43-3 for his 2016 campaign, which includes five winner’s trophies.

“Now I put myself in a position in which I wanted to be in of course ever since last year’s final,” Djokovic commented. “I was hoping that the clay-court season would be successful in the other tournaments, but mostly in this one. It’s always high on the priority list when I start a season thinking about Roland Garros, and to be able to reach [the final] is really special. I give myself another opportunity to win the trophy.”

Andy Murray of Britain in action against Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland during their men’s single semi final match at the French Open tennis tournament at Roland Garros in Paris, France, 03 June 2016. EPA/ROBERT GHEMENT

“It’s obviously a very big match for both of us,” Murray added, “(with) Novak trying to win the career slam it’s obviously a huge match for him, and me trying to win my first French Open, as well. Neither of us know how many more chances we’ll have to win here. It took Roger (Federer) a long time to win this one. And Novak, too. It’s a very tough event to win.

“There is a lot riding on the match for both of us. I hope we can both play a good match. We have had some really big battles in the slams before on all surfaces. I’m sure it will be the same again on Sunday.”

Tactically, of course, there are no secrets between these foes. Especially on this surface, they will be content to match strength with strength and slug it out in grueling baseline battles. Djokovic, as usual, will look to abuse Murray’s second serves as arguably the best returner in the sport–something Wawrinka did not do on Friday. As for the pressure, the 11-time major champion has been dealing with that since the start of the fortnight and it ratcheted it up when Rafael Nadal withdrew more than a week ago–making Djokovic an even bigger favorite.

That added weight has hardly slowed Djokovic down and there is no reason to think it will suddenly affect him in this one. The second time should be the charm.

Pick: Djokovic in 4

Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand.

Topics: 10sballs.com, 2016 French Open, Andy Murray, Clay tennis, French Open final, Novak Djokovic, Paris tennis, RG16, Ricky Dimon, Roland Garros, Sports, Tennis News

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bjmlho says:

June 4, 2016 at 9:43 pm

RT @TennisNewsOne: PARIS UPDATE – FROM 10SBALLS – RICKY’S TENNIS PICKS AND PREVIEW FOR THE FRENCH OPEN FINAL: NOVAK DJOK… https://t.co/kK…