Wimbledon men's final preview: Will destiny be kind to Andy Murray?

For those who are still hoping that Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal will come back to dominate men’s tennis anytime soon, here’s something to ponder on. Sunday marks the third time in the last four slams that Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray will be clashing in the finals. While Federer will be a contender-longshot-dark horse at the slams as long as he plays (more so on grass and somewhat on hard) and Nadal will be a force to reckon with on clay for a few more years, it’s clear that Djokovic and Murray will be the flag-bearers of the men’s game for the next few years. And as wacky and wild this Wimbledon fortnight has been, it’s fitting that Sunday’s final will be a clash between the world’s top two ranked players. For Murray, Sunday presents his second chance to end a 77-year (and counting) wait for a British champion. While his game and his fitness may be at the same level of Djokovic, the enormous burden of that pressure can be back-breaking – even for someone without Murray’s back problems. “I think I’ll probably [be] in a better place mentally,” Murray said after his semi-final win over Jerzy Janowicz. “I might wake up on Sunday and be unbelievably nervous, more nervous than I ever have been before, but I wouldn’t expect to be. It’s very different to last year really. This year’s been a little bit different. There’s been a lot of expectation. I was expected to get to the final since the early stages of the tournament. It was very emotional last year. I’m delighted to come through today and have the chance to play another final." [caption id=“attachment_935101” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Andy Murray of Britain stretches during a practice session. AP[/caption] When Murray plays aggressive and takes the ball early, his game is probably at the same level as the Serb’s. “Both of us return well, that’s probably the strongest part of our games, [we] both play predominantly from the baseline,” Murray noted. “We both move well, but a different sort of movement, he’s extremely flexible and he slides into shots, even on the courts here.” Yet when you factor in the intangibles, the six-time grand-slam winning Serb seems to be the clear favourite. Djokovic has been described as the champion with no weakness. His win on Friday was proof that his defence and mental toughness is better than anyone else in the game. The Serb was repeatedly put on the backfoot by del Potro, who hit his groundstrokes with the ferocity and pinpoint accuracy of an assassin. But it was Djokovic who came out the winner, thanks to his ability to defend and his belief (rightfully so) that his physical fitness was better than Potro’s. After playing the longest semi-final in Wimbledon history, one would be right to wonder if Djokovic would have recovered physically for Sunday’s clash. But the Serb has done it before. “I’m not in this situation [for] the first time. I was in worse situations actually before, like in the 2012 Australian Open,” Djokovic said. “[There were] several occasions where I managed to recover, managed win the title in the final, managed to feel fresh and play another six hours. I’m ready and I’m looking forward to that.” Even Murray knows that Djokovic will be ready for the final. “I think he’s extremely fit physically, and that’s why he’s able to fight until the last point of every match. He never really has any letdowns physically, which he used to when he was younger.” The Serb leads the head-to-head against Murray by 11-7 though the Scot has won their only grass court meeting – at the Olympics on the same Centre Court last year. Djokovic has also won three of their four meetings in the slams and their last three meetings since that Olympics loss. The Serb has also been in better form this fortnight. Until the semis, he had not dropped a set in the tournament and that included wins over 13th seed Tommy Haas and 7th seed Tomas Berdych. On the other hand, Murray had to come back from two sets to love down to beat Fernando Verdasco in the quarters and the highest ranked player he has beaten is the 20th seed Mikhail Youzhny. At the end of it all, it would just not seem right if Andy Murray did not win Wimbledon at least once in his career. In the past, the tennis gods at Wimbledon have had a way of scripting the right ending when it came to the destined-to-win-Wimbledon-once-in-their-career lot such as Goran Ivanisevic and Jana Novotna. Murray will win Wimbledon one day. Whether it will come on Sunday or not is another question.