Wimbledon Men’s Final Open Thread: Novak Djokovic v Andy Murray
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In the dream final Sunday at Wimbledon it’s British hope Andy Murray against world No. 1 Novak Djokovic. Murray, who lost to Roger Federer in an emotional final last year, gets another chance to end a 77-year British drought of men’s champions at the home event.
“On and off the court we have lots of respect for each other,” Djokovic said of Murray. “Now we are big rivals and it’s difficult…so we don’t get together and have dinners and parties, but we definitely always chat and remember the fun days we had as juniors.
“He’s a local hero, he has a big chance to win Wimbledon after a long time for this nation. People will be supporting him,” added Djokovic. “But it’s not the first time that I’ve been in a similar situation…I know what I need to do, I know the way I need to be focused, extra focused obviously because it’s final.”
ITF Notes:
NO. 1 NOVAK DJOKOVIC (SRB) v NO. 2 ANDY MURRAY (GBR)
Head-to-head: Djokovic leads 11-7
Djokovic and Murray have contested 3 of the last 4 Grand Slam finals (including this one).
It will be the 4th meeting between these two players in a Grand Slam final which puts them in joint-9th position on the all-time leaderboard for most match-ups in a Grand Slam final.
Murray and Djokovic are the closest Grand Slam finalists by age. Murray is just 7 days older than Djokovic. The previous closest Grand Slam finalists in terms of age were Guillermo Vilas and Jimmy Connors who met at the 1977 US Open when Vilas was 16 days older than Connors.
Murray defeated Djokovic to win his first Grand Slam title at the 2012 US Open, ending Djokovic’s run of eight successive 5-set victories. Murray won their only previous grasscourt encounter, defeating Djokovic in the semifinals at the 2012 Olympic Tennis Event on his way to winning the gold medal.
Top seed DJOKOVIC is bidding to win his 7th Grand Slam title and join John McEnroe and Mats Wilander in joint-8th place on the list for most Grand Slam singles titles in the Open Era.
If Djokovic wins his 7th Grand Slam title at 2013 Wimbledon he will be the 4th oldest player to win 7 titles at a major in the Open Era.
Djokovic is bidding to win his 2nd Wimbledon title and become the 11th male player to win multiple Wimbledon titles in the Open Era after Roger Federer (7 titles), Pete Sampras (7), Bjorn Borg (5), Boris Becker (3), McEnroe (3), Jimmy Connors (2), Stefan Edberg (2), Rod Laver (2), Rafael Nadal (2) and John Newcombe (2).
Djokovic is looking to become the 3rd different man to win multiple Wimbledon titles without having contested a grass court warm-up event after Borg (1976-80) and Federer (2007, 2009). The last time he contested a grass court warm-up event was 2010 Queen’s. In 2011, he became the last man to win the Wimbledon title without having contested a grass court warm-up event.
MURRAY is bidding to become the first British men’s singles winner at Wimbledon since Fred Perry won the last of his 3 singles titles here in 1936.
The last British player, man or woman, to win the Wimbledon singles title is Virginia Wade at 1977 Wimbledon.
If Murray wins his first Wimbledon title on his 8th appearance here, he will go 2nd on the list for the most attempts before winning the Wimbledon title.
Murray is bidding to become the first man to win the Wimbledon title after having won one of the pre-Wimbledon grass court warm up events since Rafael Nadal in 2008. Murray warmed up for Wimbledon by winning his 3rd title at Queen’s as top seed (d. Marin Cilic). It was his 27th career title and 4th on grass.
Murray is bidding to extend his Tour-level winning streak to 12-matches. Murray has managed 12 or more consecutive wins at Tour-level on 2 other occasions.
SATURDAY WIMBLEDON SCHEDULE
CENTRE COURT – SHOW COURT – 2.00 PM START
Novak Djokovic (SRB) [1] vs Andy Murray (GBR) [2]
Bruno Soares (BRA) / Lisa Raymond (USA) [1] vs Daniel Nestor (CAN) / Kristina Mladenovic (FRA) [8]
BET AT HOME ODDS
Novak Djokovic 1.55 v Andy Murray 2.20
WEATHER.COM LONDON FORECAST
Sunny, high 86F
U.S. TELEVISION
ESPN will have live coverage of the men’s final at 9am ET.
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