Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray Will Decide New French Open Champion

This is all we have been waiting for breathlessly, the ultimate FINALE in Tennis especially the battle lines drawn between the No.1 and No.2 player and that is the kind of memorable finish you expect in every tournament more so in a Grand Slam.

I think the Novak Vs Andy encounter will be both a physical as well as mental battle and it will be interesting to watch as to how both the players handle it. For certain, it will be tough and exacting for both the players as the stakes are quite high. But, these are experienced players who have in such situations before and for sure they will handle it with remarkable suaveness and ease.

The form of the player on that day will decide the winner with both being excellent returners as well as unbelievable retrievers. Remarkably, both the players have also perfected the drop shot and are executing it with consummate ease in crunch moments of the match.

June 4th, 2016 at 1:07 am

I look forward to this match. Andy looks so good; his performance against Wawrinka was out of this world. On the other hand, Djokovic will go out to play this final without any reservations, prepared to do everything what it takes to get this one. It will be an incredible battle.

June 4th, 2016 at 4:27 am

i hope murray can win this but he has a tough job if he is to deny djokovic his career slam . Murray will have to play as good as he did yesterday – maybe even better if he is to have a chance .
That said he goes in on the back of his 1st win on clay against novak , his 1st win on clay against wawrinka and he has knocked off the defending champ to get their
Im sure whoever wins it will be a pulsating , grueling battle of physical , mental and emotional strength between the best 2 players in the world

June 4th, 2016 at 4:32 am

For Murray to win he must start very confidently
Get behind is not good option
It will be decided by a few important points
Murray must hold his serve & his nerve

June 4th, 2016 at 4:43 am

One of the best performance from Andy ever. Simply amazing, the way he was being aggressive and retrieving every single shot, wow. Almost Rafa like. If he is in the same mode in the fnals, he will beat Novak in four or five, who hasn’t looked as good as Andy lately. Andy should also be confident that he has beat Novak in straights in Rome. Also his two slam wins came against Novak. Lot of positives for Andy

June 4th, 2016 at 5:01 am

Boxing icon Mohammed Ali died, He was 74. At one time, I hear, he was the most famous, most recognizable person globally. Now they want to honor him, but also take the brain from his remains to see how badly boxing damaged it, promptly returning it for Muslim rites.
Some in the Ali Familiy oppose this. Of course, they have all sorts of x-ray, CAT, MRE, and tons of other cognitive and specific medical “hard science” tests. Should boxing go the way of the Medieval Blood Sports that pitted beasts fighting to the death to facilitate gambling, and excite and thrill the audience….
One good thing about tennis is you will not see a punch drunk Federer with brain trauma linked Parkinson’s disease in 25 years time..

June 4th, 2016 at 6:17 am

Ali was the greatest boxer ever
RIP champ

June 4th, 2016 at 6:25 am

Boxing is not a sport. Its a medieval barbaric activity. Almost every boxer ends the same way.

So is Amerian football. Repeated head trauma should not have a place in any “sport”.

June 4th, 2016 at 10:43 am

It could well be a very boring match, like the AO final. But when it’s boring that way, kinda like it.

June 4th, 2016 at 11:05 am

It won’t be like the AO
Muzz had no chance there and he knew it.
Here’s different.
As soon as I saw him smirking I knew he was on the way out and went back to sleep.
I actually don’t have strong feelings about what is going to happen either way
The weather masked the players form up until the semis and then the cream rose the top
If Andy is to win he literally has to play his best match ever
He can do it, but will he is the question
Again he needs to still win the first set catching up 2 sets down is not the way to do it
He is the underdog with much less pressure so he has that advantage.
It’s very important not to let Novak run away with it as he has done before, as he’ll come out like a runaway train as usual.
Of course Novak is the favourite, but Andy will have a chance here or there and if he builds on the Wawrinka performance we could be in for a treat
I personally find a lot of their matches boring but i think this one will not be, it should be EPIC in fact.

June 4th, 2016 at 11:22 am

Djokovic getting a “light” morning workout in today at RG stadium before the Garbine-Serena match.

https://youtu.be/DqzrPQO4frA

I wonder if we will see Amelie Mauresmo at the match.

Rumors today are Rafa has decided not to participate at Wimbledon (no surprise) , will officially announce it on Monday.

June 4th, 2016 at 1:56 pm

CDP,

My dad actually picked Murray to beat Wawrinka. So he outpicked me on that one. My prediction was definitely wrong. My dad was also saying that it might be better for Murray to lose the first set. He has seemed to have that warrior mentality and it seems to get him into the fighting back mode. That’s been the theme for him this tournament. I don’t agree with my dad, but he has watched tennis longer than I have and he may be right. The only thing is that Murray has never won once he has lost the first set to Nole. On the flip side, Nole has never even won 1 set after he has won the first set in the finals.

June 4th, 2016 at 4:01 pm

There are other funny stats: nobody that beat the defending champion won the FO in the last 10 years.

June 4th, 2016 at 5:42 pm

Another funny stat: Novak Djokovic won all the finals but one when he won the semi in three.

And he lost that final because he never won in the rain.

June 4th, 2016 at 5:43 pm

Mat4,

Hi, how are you?

June 4th, 2016 at 6:06 pm

At the moment, I am doubting my own knowledge of what I have seen in this tournament so far and the match-up between Murray vs Djokovic. I tend to have a weakness to buy into the hype of Murray. I have read so much about Murray being in the best form of anyone. I did have a laugh however when the guys at eurosport all said Murray was by far in the best form lately. I could disagree more. It seems like the media has completely overlooked Nole’s masterclass performance against Thiem. Maybe his top 2 or 3 performances of the whole year. I don’t even feel Andy has been playing as good as the media hypes it up as. A guy that has lost 6 sets before the finals and been on court for 5 hours more is being hyped as almost the favorite if not on level terms. A guy that hasn’t beaten Nole in 3 years at a major. A guy that hasn’t won back to back matches in their rivalry in 4 years. I feel like I have been watching different matches than other people. Andy was good and I will give all credit where credit was due, but in no way was his performance better than Nole’s against Thiem. I don’t see that at all.

June 4th, 2016 at 6:12 pm

@Dave:

Fine. And you?

It’s marketing. Imagine all those pundits saying: “Stan has played an awful match — he was in a bad form this spring and not tested at the FO — and Andy just defended, moonballed and served, while Novak played a great semi… etc… what would be the attendance of the final?

Wilander, JMac, all of them know where their bread and butter are.

June 4th, 2016 at 6:38 pm

I’m good thanks. I almost think it’s better not to read the hype the media creates. The only doubt I have is that it’s the one major that Nole has never won before. So this creates a bit of doubt for sure. I would feel like this match would be a forgone conclusion if it was at another major. But because it’s at Roland Garros, it changes things for me a bit. That’s the only reason why I think the match could be closer than it needs to be.

June 4th, 2016 at 6:42 pm

It’s also one of the two majors Andy never won before.

And Andy could well share Novak’s third place on the Open Era greats with most slam finals lost, with only Federer (10) and Lendl (9) with more.

June 4th, 2016 at 7:14 pm

Sorry, Lendl has the record, with 11 lost finals…

June 4th, 2016 at 7:16 pm

I bookmarked that link you sent with all of the stats. That’s awesome for looking up all of the stats. I took a look through all of it. Very interesting records.

June 4th, 2016 at 7:18 pm

@Dave:

There are a few excellent sites with stats. First, I recommend

tennisabstract.com

there is a profusion of data there.

The Open Era records are here:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Era_tennis_records_%E2%80%93_men’s_singles

The Tennisbase is also full of data:

thetennisbase.com

June 4th, 2016 at 7:34 pm

Perfect. Thanks for the info Mat4.

June 4th, 2016 at 8:05 pm

Mat4 – I never did get how all those RUPs Lendl got were turned into a negative. Like Ivan choked, while the other 126 guys who fell before the Final didn’t choke far worse if you follow that logic.
I think a great Slam Finals percent was attributable, into the 80s, players skipping Slams they did poorly at, like Borg. Nowadays it’s getting ill or hurt for the ones they do bad in quite a bit while always showing up for the ones they do great in. Or great Slam winning percent from just not being good enough to make it to all 4 Slam finals often. Just their faves.

June 5th, 2016 at 4:43 am

CF1:

I watched tennis those years, from the first FO final Lendl played to the first he won. He choked a few times, and was beaten another few.

At the beginning, it was very difficult to break through — Borg, Vilas, JMac, Connors were still peaking. After that, it was the evolution of technology: he played with an alu frame but the head size was 60 inch2, and already in 1988 the new generation played with much bigger racquets. Despite his professionalism, it shortened his career.

Then, he really skipped RG to prepare for WB, and he didn’t always plays the AO. But, nonetheless, for somebody winning about 90% of his matches at his peak and truly changing the game, he should have probably achieved more at slams.

The stats above are just for joking.

June 5th, 2016 at 8:10 am