French Open: Novak Djokovic & Stan Wawrinka ready for final
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French Open men's singles final |
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Venue: Roland Garros, Paris Date: 7 June Time: 14:00 BST |
Coverage: Live text and BBC Radio 5 live commentaries |
Novak Djokovic will be hoping to join a select group of all-time greats when he faces Stan Wawrinka in Sunday's French Open final.
The Serb, 28, takes on the eighth seed from Switzerland from 14:00 BST at Roland Garros.
Djokovic can become only the eighth man to claim all four Grand Slam singles titles and secure a ninth major win.
Wawrinka, 30, is looking for his second after winning last year's Australian Open.
Djokovic took his winning run to 28 matches with a five-set win over Andy Murray which finished on Saturday, after bad weather stopped play on Friday evening.
"It wasn't physically an easy match, that's for sure, but I think I will be fine for the final," said the top seed.
"Whatever I have left in me, I will put out on the court on Sunday and hopefully it can be enough."
Magnificent seven: the men who have won a career Grand Slam | |
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Fred Perry | Andre Agassi |
Don Budge | Roger Federer |
Rod Laver | Rafael Nadal |
Roy Emerson |
Djokovic has won the Australian Open five times, Wimbledon twice and the US Open once, but he has twice fallen short against Rafael Nadal in French Open finals.
He finally earned a first win over the nine-time champion in Paris in the quarter-finals, and the Spaniard said Djokovic was in the best period of his career.
"I probably am," said Djokovic, who got married and became a father last year.
"Everything is coming together in my life and I'm experiencing probably the pinnacle of my career, of my life, complete person, very satisfied on and off the court, and I think it all influences my performance."
Djokovic has a one-sided 17-3 record against Wawrinka, but the Swiss did end a nine-year losing streak when he beat him on his way to victory in Melbourne last year.
"A year ago in Australia he had won three matches in a row, and I was thinking, what am I going to do?" said Wawrinka.
Stats of the day | |
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Djokovic is bidding to win his ninth Grand Slam title and surpass Andre Agassi, Jimmy Connors, Ivan Lendl, Fred Perry and Ken Rosewall | Don Budge (1938) and Rod Laver (1962, 1969) are the only men to have achieved the calendar Grand Slam |
Wawrinka is aiming to become the first former Roland Garros boys' champion (2003) to win the title since Mats Wilander in 1988 | Wawrinka hopes to become the second Swiss player in history to win Roland Garros after Roger Federer in 2009 |
"But the next thing to do is to play my best tennis, don't forget that my game is bothering the top players, and when I start and I'm in form, I can perhaps seize this opportunity to defeat them all."
Asked about the Serb's run of form that has seen him go undefeated in Grand Slam and Masters events since Shanghai in October, Wawrinka added: "He is a machine, that's true.
"He's been amazing so far this year, winning every big title, playing his best test tennis ever.
"But he's never won the French Open. For sure we're both going to be nervous. That's a fact."
Route to the final | ||
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Novak Djokovic | Stan Wawrinka | |
Jarkko Nieminen 6-2 7-5 6-2 | First round | Marsel Ilhan 6-3 6-2 6-3 |
Gilles Muller 6-1 6-4 6-4 | Second round | Dusan Lajovic 6-3 6-4 5-7 6-3 |
Thanasi Kokkinakis 6-4 6-4 6-4 | Third round | Steve Johnson 6-4 6-3 6-2 |
(20) Richard Gasquet 6-1 6-2 6-3 | Fourth round | (12) Gilles Simon 6-1 6-4 6-2 |
(6) Rafael Nadal 7-5 6-3 6-1 | Quarter-final | (2) Roger Federer 6-4 6-3 7-6 (7-4) |
(3) Andy Murray 6-3 6-3 5-7 5-7 6-1 | Semi-final | (14) Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-3 6-7 (1-7) 7-6 (7-3) 6-4 |
14 hours 16 mins | Total time on court | 14 hours 48 mins |
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