In triumphing, Djokovic regained sole possession of the career Masters 1000 titles lead with 29 (Rafael Nadal captured his 28th in Monte-Carlo last month). The Serb also improved to 23-9 lifetime against Murray, including 12-1 in their last 13 matches.
“Novak has had a lot of wins against me in the last couple of years unfortunately, but he has done some great things and also deserved this win,” Murray said.
For a while it looked Djokovic would make extremely short work of the second-ranked Scot. The top seed coasted through the opening set in just 31 minutes, but a double-fault on break point early in the second started to turn things around. Murray took care of his serve from start to finish to force a decisive third.
The underdog played well from behind throughout the evening, and he even broke back immediately in the decider. Soon after Djokovic added another break for 4-2, it looked like Murray would again get back on even terms. The reigning Wimbledon, U.S. Open, and Australian Open champion dug himself into a 0-40 hole while serving for the title at 5-3, but he fought out of it and held on to clinch victory.
Highlights:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tccvfycB7hs
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This match was absolutely bruising, especially that 3rd set and what an epic final service game of Nole, showed his mettle in the end though. my nerves was done as i didnt want Murray to win, surely thought if he broke serve there, that would have been the end of it.
that final service game WAS epic
I always knew that Djokovic is going to make it through the finals. But I expected Murray to bounce back after losing to Djokovic in Australian Open finals. This game has become too predictable these days when Novak is on Song.
I think it’s interesting when one player dominates the game.You can already see Murray and Kyrgios improving their level to try and meet the challenge presented by Djokovic’s airtight game.
Novak has two prime years left. Wonder what he will accomplish?
two???
Not sure it’s just two! If he is smart with his schedule given that he is not injury prone he can stay at the top longer than that, especially if the weak field remains…the main challenge he will have in those young guns who fear nobody and have nothing to lose…
I think Novak is in his prime now and has been free of any serious injury. I expect that he will have more than two years. More like four or five!
I seriously doubt that. I have a feeling this will be Novak’s last massive season, on par with 2015/2011, and after that you’ll see maybe 2/1 slam seasons before he inevitably declines. More than anything, the mental effort and commitment it requires to stay on top will take its toll. The guy is human after all.
yeah. Guy is a machine. No reason to think he won’t still be in peak condition at 32 and 33.
He will be thirty and krygios,zverev,thiem, etc will be ascending. I guess we’ll see.
I doubt Djoko can still be at the top when he’s 32 or 33. He has already shown vulnerability during early rounds, if not why would he lose to Vesley at MC. We can brush off this loss as a one off, but in two or three years, loss(es) like this will be more and more common.
In the Madrid final, during the last few games, Djoko had some issue with his shoulder and had to worked so hard to hold serve to win the match. He is human after all, so he had ankle(2013), wrist(2014)and now shoulder issues, though all were minor niggles but as he’s also approaching 30, minor issues like these may one day become more serious.
Kygrios, Zverev, Thiem, Fritz, even Karchanov, may one day mature into serious slam contenders, in their early to mid 20s, even if the likes of Kei, Raonic fail to do so.
I think he has this and next year to seriously challenge Fed for his weeks at no.1 and slam records. I think he will complete his career slam, though may not be this year (I hope as I wish Rafa to win his no.10 FO this year).