Final Showdown Murray vs Djokovoic

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Everything is going by the plan, it was very much anticipated Murray - Djoko finals, however some might disagree majority including bookies expected it. In my view Murray is the form horse of the tournament even ahead of Djoko right now. Lets do Swot analysis

Murray perspective -

Strengths -
New Aggressive play [was able to stand with Fed]
Backhand at its full flow
Faced a Sterner opponent in semi's
Best Wheels
New found belief to beat top dogs.
Learning to be calm under pressure

Weakness
Mid Match focus lapse

Opportunities
To become No.1 later this year
Multiple GS Achivement

Threats
Djoko's form and favorite turf

Djokovic's perspective -

Strength
Complete game
Favorite turf
Knows opponents game better than his opponent knows of his game.
Better player under pressure

Weakness -
Haven't had a tougher test outside Stan [will be tested for sure by Murray]

Opportunities -
First player in open era to win AO 3 times in a row
Cling on to No.1 with Iron fist.

Threats -
Opponent's belief
Pressure to win as he starts heavy favorite

I predicted Murray to win USO even before the start of USO [ not bragging , but just wanna say I stick to my analysis and portray what my head says more than my heart], I cast Murray as the favourite to win the title at 65-35 % , I always love to give high percentage rather than sticking my neck and say its too close to predict.

Djoko's form is very scary but the pressure is on him to win and that will favour Murray this time around, I would be pleasently surprised if Murray doesn't win come Sunday. Whats your view guys?

The comeback kid does it again down a set and triple break point early in the second.

coolpixel wrote:Sorry but this final is distinctly underwhelming regardless of who wins it. Endless backhand to backhand returns, no flair, no volleys , no angles . Just who outlasts the other.

We will die of boredom

But I did see a Djokovic FH winner at an angle and some drop shots as well as an OH smash, CP.

coolpixel wrote:Sorry but this final is distinctly underwhelming regardless of who wins it. Endless backhand to backhand returns, no flair, no volleys , no angles . Just who outlasts the other.

We will die of boredom

I nearly did...not one of those matches you'd watch in its entirety again if you'd taped it. The kind of match were a five minutes highlights package will do....

Well played Djoko - best in the world and deserved winner.

Murray has got no reason to be ashamed, he played his part, but missing those bp's in the 2nd set turned out to be v. bad news. Murray still needs to step up and get a bit more aggressive.

Like his coach Lendl, Andy's now 1-5 in his first 6 slam finals.

socal1976 wrote:But what a great performance by such a deserving champion.

Although I don't think it was Djoko's (or Andy's) greatest performance. Too much for Andy on the day though. That damn feather!

Well played Djokovic

Congrats to Socal, HM et al. Your man played well

So Djoko wins with only one tough match against Wawrinka.

What has tennis come to.

Watch out for the riots in Scotland tonight. They won't take this well..

coolpixel wrote:Sorry but this final is distinctly underwhelming regardless of who wins it. Endless backhand to backhand returns, no flair, no volleys , no angles . Just who outlasts the other.

We will die of boredom

I agree. Rally after rally after rally followed by an unforced error for the point to end.

carrieg4 wrote:Well played Djokovic

Congrats to Socal, HM et al. Your man played well

Thanks carrie, Andy showed a lot of fight and had a great tournment he had Novak rattled. Julius was that the most expensive feather in history?

I am so used to the moaning, who cares whether you like it or not these two are the near future and present of the game.

Congrats Novak!! He is a champion!

Murray had a shocker really, played some good tennis but he just threw in the towel so easily after he lost that 2nd set. A true champion (Federer, Nadal, Djokovic ) Would fight back and bring their best tennis to the table. Murray just went into his shell and started blaming things like the crowd making noise, his hamstring etc. His demands to the umpire were just ridiculous, how can he make a huge crowd quiet? He's come a long way but he'll just keep losing Finals if he can't find that little extra when things go bad.

At least they do not need chairs to sit down, unlike 2012.

Andy goes down in four sets to Novak Djokovic in a match he had chances in. He won the first set and had a golden chance to break immediately in the second set and never took it and end up losing it. From that point onwards I felt the writing was on the wall and as Novak raised his game Andy began to look tired and his serve never functioned as well as it did against Federer. Big credit to Novak though as some of his retrievals are mind-boggling and he equals the record of winning three Australian Open titles on the bounce. Murray can take much from this match such as a few hundred extra ranking points nudging him closer to Federer (ranked No.2), three back-to-back slam finals is an immense achievement and beating the great Federer for the first time in a slam in the semi. A disappointing end result but I am positive Andy will be back in many more slam finals.

Well done Nole. A deserved winner. We'll leave Socal, HM etc, to spend the rest of their day celebrating

Happy enough with Andy, I thought he might win - but what did I know. For me it shows, as most of us agreed previously on these boards, it's hard work playing Fed then Nole to win a slam (in comparison to a tame Ferrer!!)

Andy's best chance is probably to meet Nole in the SF, given that he's likely to stay at No.3 for a good while

I think Wimbledon and the US are Andy's best chances for success

Hope the now has a better end to the hard court season than the last 3 years!!

Finally, it's great to see these two, who have had so much abuse (and continue to get it) over the years at the very top

socal1976 wrote:

carrieg4 wrote:Well played Djokovic

Congrats to Socal, HM et al. Your man played well

Thanks carrie, Andy showed a lot of fight and had a great tournment he had Novak rattled. Julius was that the most expensive feather in history?

We'll never know I guess - but of all the things to affect concentration, something so small and light in the midst of all the sweat and muscles. There's a beautiful irony to it.

Andy looked completely cooked in the 4th, no sign of fight back after losing 2nd set.

banbrotam wrote:Well done Nole. A deserved winner. We'll leave Socal, HM etc, to spend the rest of their day celebrating

Happy enough with Andy, I thought he might win - but what did I know. For me it shows, as most of us agreed previously on these boards, it's hard work playing Fed then Nole to win a slam (in comparison to a tame Ferrer!!)

Andy's best chance is probably to meet Nole in the SF, given that he's likely to stay at No.3 for a good while

I think Wimbledon and the US are Andy's best chances for success

Hope the now has a better end to the hard court season than the last 3 years!!

Finally, it's great to see these two, who have had so much abuse (and continue to get it) over the years at the very top

I agree Andy will certainly be back banbro and he had Novak rattled for awhile. Andy had a great tournament, take it easy Andy fans. A final and a win over the goat is nothing to be sad about.

I'll keep it short. Well done Novak, the better man won on the day. The first two sets could have gone either way but after the second he showed why he's the best player in the world just now.

I don't like to over-analyse but to go 4 sets against Murray without being broken is phenomenal and it was one of the greatest serving performances of all time.

Enjoy it socal, Murdoch, but don't rub it in too much with gushing articles

bsando wrote:Congrats Novak!! He is a champion!

Murray had a shocker really, played some good tennis but he just threw in the towel so easily after he lost that 2nd set. A true champion (Federer, Nadal, Djokovic ) Would fight back and bring their best tennis to the table. Murray just went into his shell and started blaming things like the crowd making noise, his hamstring etc. His demands to the umpire were just ridiculous, how can he make a huge crowd quiet? He's come a long way but he'll just keep losing Finals if he can't find that little extra when things go bad.

Two points. Fed has a poorish 5 set record against his rivals. For instance, do you think he "threw in the towel" on Friday or against Nadal at RG in 08'? Lazy comments like yours make me want to puke. You try going up against Novak and see how you fair

The other point is that he will keep losing finals, but is also likely to win a few as well

Nobody cares or will love Djoko, he can win another 50 slams and no one will remember him. Not a single great match for whole 2 weeks, and yet he wins a GS. Boringgggg

invisiblecoolers wrote:Andy looked completely cooked in the 4th, no sign of fight back after losing 2nd set.

Agreed. He had nothing left. His error was in allowing Roger two sets off him, via tie breaks. The extra 90 minutes uses for winning extra sets, could have made all the difference, early on here, i.e. more energy could have meant a 2-0 set lead and then who knows

But we have to recognise that whichever player has to play hs two rivals to win a Slam, is at a disadvantage

I never thought I'd say this but I want Rafa to gatecrash these two, see if he has anything left to show them

Jahu wrote:Nobody cares or will love Djoko, he can win another 50 slams and no one will remember him. Not a single great match for whole 2 weeks, and yet he wins a GS. Boringgggg

I've told you a million times, don't exaggerate.
(The old jokes are the best)

Andy's legs were too tired. Don't know if he can blame blisters to me it looked like he was simply gassed and couldn't hide the pain.

Thanks JUan, Novak's serve is right where it has to be. Great direction, great consistency and a very good kick serve for his second serve to back it up. At first his forehand was just spraying but he kept fighting.

Congrats to Andy, a gs final loss is painful but it should be deemed a success and not a failure

laverfan wrote:

coolpixel wrote:Sorry but this final is distinctly underwhelming regardless of who wins it. Endless backhand to backhand returns, no flair, no volleys , no angles . Just who outlasts the other.

We will die of boredom

But I did see a Djokovic FH winner at an angle and some drop shots as well as an OH smash, CP.

I did yawn a lot so must have missed those . Most of the drop shots i saw went into the net and the angles were very rare

coolpixel wrote:Sorry but this final is distinctly underwhelming regardless of who wins it. Endless backhand to backhand returns, no flair, no volleys , no angles . Just who outlasts the other.

We will die of boredom

Have to agree with this summary. I watched it till the end of the third set then gave up knowing full well what the result would be.

Sadly Djokovic didn't play that well but Murray, for whatever reason, couldn't take advantage.

File under anti-climaxes with not a lot to shout about for either camp.

Well that was pleasing!

Nothing between the two for the first two sets but Novak improved in sets 3 and 4, whilst I think Andy started to run out of steam. He may well have been paying the price for a tough 5 setter v Fed 2 days ago.

This is a great time to be a Novak fan though. His accomplishments are building to the point where I think he may be viewed in the future as a player of significance.

There you are you laggard murdoch, this is the first time I poured my first drink at 430 am. And you with your lovely time zone are tardy. I have been awake for 20 hrs my friend get out you whiskey cup and have one. Novak the king of the plexicushion.

Check that 22 hrs.

Well played again Novak and enjoy the moment socal and HM. The best player won on the day.

socal1976 wrote:There you are you laggard murdoch, this is the first time I poured my first drink at 430 am. And you with your lovely time zone are tardy. I have been awake for 20 hrs my friend get out you whiskey cup and have one. Novak the king of the plexicushion.

I don't know if 4:30 am is early for a drink or late for a drink!

A Macallan now may bring about a nap but, hey it's Sunday afternoon!

Thanks craig murray fans have a lot to be proud of a grandslam final is nothing to sneeze at. People who never accomplish anything always like to knock the accomplishments of those who achieve, it is a rule in life.

HM Murdoch wrote:I don't know if 4:30 am is early for a drink or late for a drink

I'ts late if you're still awake. It would be very early if you'd only just got up!

CaledonianCraig wrote:Well played again Novak and enjoy the moment socal and HM. The best player won on the day.

Cheers Craig. You are undoubtedly disappointed but I reckon 6 months ago if someone had offered Olympic Gold, US Open and RU in Australia, you'd have taken it! It's a fantastic sequence, whatever today's result.

We all want to see Andy now continue at this level. If he can eliminate his common springtime slump, the #1 ranking starts to come into play.

JuliusHMarx wrote:

HM Murdoch wrote:I don't know if 4:30 am is early for a drink or late for a drink

I'ts late if you're still awake. It would be very early if you'd only just got up!

I am still awake, and enjoying it to the fullest my friend.

HM Murdoch wrote:

CaledonianCraig wrote:Well played again Novak and enjoy the moment socal and HM. The best player won on the day.

Cheers Craig. You are undoubtedly disappointed but I reckon 6 months ago if someone had offered Olympic Gold, US Open and RU in Australia, you'd have taken it! It's a fantastic sequence, whatever today's result.

We all want to see Andy now continue at this level. If he can eliminate his common springtime slump, the #1 ranking starts to come into play.

He's still a long way off Djokovic's no1 slot. Will need to win at least one slam this year to keep anywhere near him.

It will be interesting how spring goes for Andy after this loss. As you say there always seems to be a dip in his form around this time so there are points to be gained and would put him in the best possible frame of mind for the clay court season.

Congratulations to Djokovic on his great win. I talked about Djokovic's only hope (in an earlier post) being engaging that special gear he has and boy did he find it in that third set (and then the 4th). Like the USO in some respects, it seems apparent that Murray needs the 2 set cushion against Djokovic in case Djokovic engages that special gear so that by the 5th Djokovic's level drops in the match but his opportunities in the 2nd set came and went and so we have the result we have. Same story with Nadal in the French Open, built a 2 set cushion and Djokovic's late surge wasn't enough. I have no trouble saying Djokovic won fair and square and was undoubtedly the better player overall.

I've said before and I still think it's true that Djokovic needed to hold onto this slam as it is most successful so it's good he's done that and he deservedly is No.1. Nadal held onto RG and Djokovic held onto the Aussie Open, nothing is different in either of those slams, really the USO and Wimbledon are the slams which are more up for grabs but of course we'll need to see how Rafa is playing first too.

Craig, murray should be hopeful after his AO performance, why wouldn't he be? he played in a final and gave a good account, beat the goat in the semi, and his serve looks better than ever.

Not got a lot of time as on the move today but just to say well done to Djokovic on a deserved win. Hopefully Murray is not too down about it, regroups and comes back strongly over the coming months.

How is Murray going to win the US Open again if having a day off between the semi and the final was not enough recovery time? He is not old, is in the prime of his tennis career and is fitter than he has ever been. This tournament unlike the others he spent the least amount of time on court and had very little strong opposition until the semis.

I felt he was not exactly flying when he came up against Federer. He should have wiped Federer out in 3 sets. The fact that the GOAT took him to 5 said he may have come unstuck vs Novak. He did trouble Djoko and I think had Djoko played the big points better in the 1st set he would have won it.

Good achievement by Murray but isn't winning slams more important than being a finalist? So that makes it 1 win off 6 slam finals. With Nadal back in the mix I think it will get harder for Murray. If he wants more slams now is the time while his bogeyman is still out.

FedsFan wrote:How is Murray going to win the US Open again if having a day off between the semi and the final was not enough recovery time? He is not old, is in the prime of his tennis career and is fitter than he has ever been. This tournament unlike the others he spent the least amount of time on court and had very little strong opposition until the semis.

I felt he was not exactly flying when he came up against Federer. He should have wiped Federer out in 3 sets. The fact that the GOAT took him to 5 said he may have come unstuck vs Novak. He did trouble Djoko and I think had Djoko played the big points better in the 1st set he would have won it.

Good achievement by Murray but isn't winning slams more important than being a finalist? So that makes it 1 win off 6 slam finals. With Nadal back in the mix I think it will get harder for Murray. If he wants more slams now is the time while his bogeyman is still out.

No big mystery really FedsFan. Andy's serve percentage wasn't as high as it needed to be (and was V Federer), he was not quite as aggressive today as he was against Federer and the match really turned at the start of the second set. Novak is like a shark, once he smells blood he pounces and he fed off saving those break points. A defeat for Andy but against the world No.1 renowned for his quality on this surface that is no disgrace.

CaledonianCraig wrote:

FedsFan wrote:How is Murray going to win the US Open again if having a day off between the semi and the final was not enough recovery time? He is not old, is in the prime of his tennis career and is fitter than he has ever been. This tournament unlike the others he spent the least amount of time on court and had very little strong opposition until the semis.

I felt he was not exactly flying when he came up against Federer. He should have wiped Federer out in 3 sets. The fact that the GOAT took him to 5 said he may have come unstuck vs Novak. He did trouble Djoko and I think had Djoko played the big points better in the 1st set he would have won it.

Good achievement by Murray but isn't winning slams more important than being a finalist? So that makes it 1 win off 6 slam finals. With Nadal back in the mix I think it will get harder for Murray. If he wants more slams now is the time while his bogeyman is still out.

No big mystery really FedsFan. Andy's serve percentage wasn't as high as it needed to be (and was V Federer), he was not quite as aggressive today as he was against Federer and the match really turned at the start of the second set. Novak is like a shark, once he smells blood he pounces and he fed off saving those break points. A defeat for Andy but against the world No.1 renowned for his quality on this surface that is no disgrace.

That was what I felt about Federer i.e serve percentage was not high enough and not enough cheap point when in trouble. I think Murray was as aggressive as he could have been. You are right, when Djoko gets going he is hard to stop. I think Murray not having big names to play early on did not help him. The win over Fed to me carried no significance to be honest though much was made of it.

luciusmann wrote:Congratulations to Djokovic on his great win. I talked about Djokovic's only hope (in an earlier post) being engaging that special gear he has and boy did he find it in that third set (and then the 4th). Like the USO in some respects, it seems apparent that Murray needs the 2 set cushion against Djokovic in case Djokovic engages that special gear so that by the 5th Djokovic's level drops in the match but his opportunities in the 2nd set came and went and so we have the result we have. Same story with Nadal in the French Open, built a 2 set cushion and Djokovic's late surge wasn't enough. I have no trouble saying Djokovic won fair and square and was undoubtedly the better player overall.

I've said before and I still think it's true that Djokovic needed to hold onto this slam as it is most successful so it's good he's done that and he deservedly is No.1. Nadal held onto RG and Djokovic held onto the Aussie Open, nothing is different in either of those slams, really the USO and Wimbledon are the slams which are more up for grabs but of course we'll need to see how Rafa is playing first too.

Djokovic hit his 'special gear' in the French Open final?

Do me a favour.

Nadal was dismantling Djokovic until the umpire felt fit to let them carry on playing in near monsoon conditions.

Has the rain not come, Nadal would've won in 3 sets.

Gerry SA wrote:

luciusmann wrote:Congratulations to Djokovic on his great win. I talked about Djokovic's only hope (in an earlier post) being engaging that special gear he has and boy did he find it in that third set (and then the 4th). Like the USO in some respects, it seems apparent that Murray needs the 2 set cushion against Djokovic in case Djokovic engages that special gear so that by the 5th Djokovic's level drops in the match but his opportunities in the 2nd set came and went and so we have the result we have. Same story with Nadal in the French Open, built a 2 set cushion and Djokovic's late surge wasn't enough. I have no trouble saying Djokovic won fair and square and was undoubtedly the better player overall.

I've said before and I still think it's true that Djokovic needed to hold onto this slam as it is most successful so it's good he's done that and he deservedly is No.1. Nadal held onto RG and Djokovic held onto the Aussie Open, nothing is different in either of those slams, really the USO and Wimbledon are the slams which are more up for grabs but of course we'll need to see how Rafa is playing first too.

Djokovic hit his 'special gear' in the French Open final?

Do me a favour.

Nadal was dismantling Djokovic until the umpire felt fit to let them carry on playing in near monsoon conditions.

Has the rain not come, Nadal would've won in 3 sets.

Nadal was no doubt the better player in the match, I watched it from start to finish. It's speculation whether Nadal would have won that match in 3 sets, we'll never know but what we do know is that Djokovic did win 7 or was it 8 games in a row? The conditions were not Djokovic's fault, that's the decision of the match officials and unless those 7 or 8 games in a row were a complete fluke (and out of curiosity, which player has ever taken that many consecutive games against Nadal @ RG), because let's not forget, bad conditions affect both players, not just Nadal, Djokovic can't be blamed for doing in well in such conditions, he doesn't make the decision on whether to suspend play!

luciusmann wrote:

Gerry SA wrote:

luciusmann wrote:Congratulations to Djokovic on his great win. I talked about Djokovic's only hope (in an earlier post) being engaging that special gear he has and boy did he find it in that third set (and then the 4th). Like the USO in some respects, it seems apparent that Murray needs the 2 set cushion against Djokovic in case Djokovic engages that special gear so that by the 5th Djokovic's level drops in the match but his opportunities in the 2nd set came and went and so we have the result we have. Same story with Nadal in the French Open, built a 2 set cushion and Djokovic's late surge wasn't enough. I have no trouble saying Djokovic won fair and square and was undoubtedly the better player overall.

I've said before and I still think it's true that Djokovic needed to hold onto this slam as it is most successful so it's good he's done that and he deservedly is No.1. Nadal held onto RG and Djokovic held onto the Aussie Open, nothing is different in either of those slams, really the USO and Wimbledon are the slams which are more up for grabs but of course we'll need to see how Rafa is playing first too.

Djokovic hit his 'special gear' in the French Open final?

Do me a favour.

Nadal was dismantling Djokovic until the umpire felt fit to let them carry on playing in near monsoon conditions.

Has the rain not come, Nadal would've won in 3 sets.

Nadal was no doubt the better player in the match, I watched it from start to finish. It's speculation whether Nadal would have won that match in 3 sets, we'll never know but what we do know is that Djokovic did win 7 or was it 8 games in a row? The conditions were not Djokovic's fault, that's the decision of the match officials and unless those 7 or 8 games in a row were a complete fluke (and out of curiosity, which player has ever taken that many consecutive games against Nadal @ RG), because let's not forget, bad conditions affect both players, not just Nadal, Djokovic can't be blamed for doing in well in such conditions, he doesn't make the decision on whether to suspend play!

I'm not saying it was a fluke by Djokovic to win 8 straight games at RG against Nadal, that would be disrespectful.

But Djokovic has the ability to hit thru the ball more than Nadal in heavy conditions(in this case rain).

Nadal's top spin was allowing Djokovic the ability to blast the ball.

I want to see a rematch this year.

Yes, I definitely would like to see a re-match like you, but it would very different, don't you think? No one knows what state we'll find Nadal in when he comes back and Djokovic won't have the pressure of trying to go for 4 slams in a row (which could lift the pressure).

You must remember how Djokovic surrendered his bid for the French Open, he double faulted on match point, I couldn't believe my eyes, when's the last time that happened in a grand slam final?

luciusmann wrote:Yes, I definitely would like to see a re-match like you, but it would very different, don't you think? No one knows what state we'll find Nadal in when he comes back and Djokovic won't have the pressure of trying to go for 4 slams in a row (which could lift the pressure).

You must remember how Djokovic surrendered his bid for the French Open, he double faulted on match point, I couldn't believe my eyes, when's the last time that happened in a grand slam final?

Hehe.. that was my favourite point of 2012