{"id":70036,"date":"2015-06-06T13:05:21","date_gmt":"2015-06-06T11:05:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/?p=70036"},"modified":"2015-06-07T15:22:14","modified_gmt":"2015-06-07T13:22:14","slug":"novak-downs-murray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/news\/tennis\/novak-downs-murray\/","title":{"rendered":"Nole downs Murray, plays Wawrinka in third Roland Garros final!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Nole<\/p>\n

Top seed Novak Djokovic is one win away from capturing his first title at Roland Garros and completing the career Grand Slam.<\/p>\n

The two-time runner-up extended his winning streak to 16 matches on clay courts this year after he defeated third-seeded Andy Murray 6-3, 6-3, 5-7, 5-7, 6-1 in the semi-finals. A two-day, five-set battle lasted four hours and nine minutes.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Friday was a very hot day in Paris with on-court temperatures reaching over 30 degrees Celsius. Novak got off to a good start. He broke once in the first set and twice in the second, to take a commanding two-sets-to-love lead.<\/p>\n

Games went with serve until the 11th game of the third set, when Murray earned his first two break point opportunities of the match. The Dunblane native broke for a 6-5 lead and served out the 56-minute set to love, prolonging the blockbuster semi-final.<\/p>\n

Djokovic earned triple break point chance in the second game of the fourth set. Murray held for 1-1 and went on to earn triple break point on the Serb\u2019s next service game. The crowd erupted as Andy broke for a 2-1 lead. The lead, however, was short-lived, as Nole earned two chances to get back on serve, which he did. At 3-3, the match was suspended in anticipation of a storm arriving at Roland Garros.<\/p>\n

When play resumed on Saturday, Novak was convincing in his first two service games, winning them without losing a single point. Unfortunately, he could not repeat that in the 11th game. Murray put the pressure and made a break, earning a chance to serve it out and level the match. The Brit used the opportunity and forced a deciding fifth set.<\/p>\n

The reigning Wimbledon and Australian Open titlist produced the big shots when it mattered most. He found the inner strength and with a double break, in the second and sixth games, sealed his place in the final.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a really tough match, over four hours all together, yesterday and today. No different from any other match that we played against each other. It’s always a thriller, always a marathon,\u201d<\/strong> Novak said. “Andy came up with some great shots, great points. I want to congratulate him for a great tournament and a great fight.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Match statistics: aces (8-12), double faults (2-1), winners (56-36), unforced errors (48-48).<\/p>\n

Novak will look to win his ninth Grand Slam championship title (8-7 overall record), when he faces no.8 seed Stan Wawrinka (17-3 H2H record) on Sunday at 15:00 CET.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Swiss defeated Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in four sets, 6-3, 6-7 (1), 7-6 (3), 6-4.<\/p>\n

“I think I will be fine for the final,”<\/strong> said Djokovic, hoping it will be third time lucky (l. to Nadal in 2012 and 2014). “Whatever I have left in me I will put out on the court tomorrow and hopefully it can be enough.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Photo: Getty Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The final is set and this year French Open will have a first time winner. Nole meets Stan Wawrinka (SUI, 8) on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":70068,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[101011240,101011211,101012260,101011665,101010433],"class_list":["post-70036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tennis","tag-andy-murray-en","tag-french-open-en","tag-paris-en","tag-roland-garros-2015-en","tag-semifinal-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70036"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70106,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70036\/revisions\/70106"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}