Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal square off in a record fourth successive Grand Slam final on Sunday with the French Open title and a place in tennis folklore at stake. A win for world number one Djokovic, playing in his first Roland Garros final, will make him only the third man in history — and first in 43 years — to hold all four majors at the same time.
Victory for world number two Nadal will mean becoming the first man to win seven French Opens, breaking a tie for six he currently holds with Swedish legend Bjorn Borg. Nadal, with a staggering Roland Garros career record of 51 wins and just one defeat, is the overwhelming favourite, having reached his seventh final for the loss of just 35 games in six rounds. He hasn’t dropped a set and has lost serve just once. Furthermore, Nadal came into Paris having secured claycourt titles in Barcelona, Monte Carlo and Rome, beating Djokovic in the finals of the last two in straight sets, breaking a seven-final losing streak to the Serb. But Djokovic has won all of the last three Grand Slam title matches they have played — at Wimbledon and the US Open in 2011, and this year’s epic Australian Open which, at five hours 53 minutes, was the longest ever men’s final. Not that Djokovic is seeing that as a factor come Sunday. “This is a different surface, different circumstances,” said the top seed, who reached the final with a straight sets semi-final win over Roger Federer, having saved four match points in his quarter-final win over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. “He always plays his best at Roland Garros, and so I expect him to do that as well on Sunday. I know that I have to be playing consistently well on a very high level in order to win best of five against Nadal.” Djokovic is happy to be going in as underdog having lost all three matches he has played against the Spaniard in Paris in 2006, 2007 and 2008, defeats handed out without even the consolation of one set in the Serb’s possession.
