With their match at Roland Garros on Sunday, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray will have done something that Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have yet to pull off: Play a final against each other at each of the four Grand Slams.
Based on that statistic alone, it’s past time that we started giving this rivalry a little of the love we’ve always reserved for Roger vs. Rafa. On the men’s side, Djokovic and Murray have been this decade’s most consistent winners, at the majors and everywhere else. They’ve been No. 1 and No. 2 for the better part of two years, and they never looked so clearly superior, at the same time, as they did in their French Open semifinals on Saturday.
First, Djokovic went out and played what may have been the match of his season in thrashing one of the tour’s rising stars, Dominic Thiem, in three quick sets. Then Murray went out and played what may have been the match of his career to beat the defending champion, Stan Wawrinka, in four superb sets.
What’s it going to take to get the tennis world to appreciate Djokovic vs. Murray? A classic final would help. They’ve produced some long, competitive, intermittently entertaining contests in the past, but tennis rivalries have traditionally been about contrasts—Navratilova-Evert, Borg-McEnroe, Federer-Nadal—and Djokovic and Murray’s similarly steady baseline styles don’t offer many.
Is this the moment when those steady baseline games come together to produce a signature Slam final? Judging by those semifinal performances, it could happen, but much depends on Murray. Djokovic has won seven of their nine matches at the majors, and 12 of their last 14 meetings overall. The biggest reason their rivalry hasn’t been more competitive over the last three years is that Djokovic has run away with most of their matches.
That could be different at Roland Garros. Last year Djokovic and Murray had an excellent semi there; while Djokovic did run away with it in the fifth set, Murray played some of the best clay-court tennis of his career to push it that far. He’s playing even better clay-court tennis now. Murray beat Nadal in Madrid and Djokovic in the final in Rome, and by the time he took the court against Wawrinka in Paris, there was an authentic dirtballer’s flow to his game. Murray wasn’t just steady; his shots had more bite, his placement was more varied and difficult to deal with, his sense of how to use the court had been heightened, and his serve was virtually unbreakable.
Can Murray reach that level one more time, against the world’s best player? The rock-solid Djokovic, of course, will offer a very different set of problems from the risk-taking Wawrinka. Murray won’t be able to counterpunch and win. He’ll probably want to find a way to shorten the points, because his biggest problem against Djokovic has been staying with him over the long haul and not getting frustrated and worn down. Finding a way to turn the tables will be the ultimate test for Murray, but he can at least feel good about the fact that he has beaten Djokovic in their only meetings in the Wimbledon and U.S. Open finals.
For Djokovic, winning the French Open has also proven to be his ultimate career test. Three times he’s reached the final, three times he’s walked away second best. As he did in the Roland Garros final in 2012, Djokovic is also bidding to become the first man since Rod Laver in 1969 to hold all four major titles at once. It’s fitting that to achieve something that rare and monumental, he’ll have to beat an opponent who has found the best clay-court form of his career. It should be tough, but Djokovic wouldn’t expect his most satisfying and long-awaited career win to come any other way.
Winner: Novak Djokovic