Djokovic faces Ruud in French Open final with chance to reign supreme in legend
Such is the wondrousness of Novak Djokovic that on Sunday afternoon in Paris he will contest a 34th men's singles final at a Grand Slam tournament.
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Should the 36-year-old Serbian beat Casper Ruud to claim the French Open, he will lift the Coupe des Mousquetaires for a third time and a deluge of paeans will be unleashed amid the pomp and circumstance on Court Phillippe Chatrier.
With a 23rd crown, he will not only move one ahead of longtime rival Rafael Nadal but also become the first man to win at least three times at the four Grand Slam competition venues in Melbourne, Paris, London and New York.
"I like the feeling," said Djokovic after beating the top seed Carlos Alcaraz in the semi-final. "It's an incredible privilege to be able to make history of the sport that I truly love. The motivation is very high, as you can imagine."
Djokovic's first Grand Slam triumph came at the Australian Open in 2008. He has since won nine more times in Melbourne. He has lifted the Wimbledon title seven times and has emerged the victor in New York on three occasions.
Status
"I've put myself in another really ideal position to win a Grand Slam," Djokovic added. "That's basically what still drives me when I wake up in the morning and think about the season and think about things I want to achieve.
"The Grand Slams are what drives me the most. I won the first Grand Slam this year and now I'm in the finals of a second one, so I couldn't ask for more than that."
Alcaraz was at one set all with Djokovic in the eagerly anticipated semi-final on Friday afternoon when he suffered cramps.
The 20-year-old conceded that the tension and pressure of playing against Djokovic in a match of such importance affected him.
What hope then for Ruud who lost in the 2022 French Open final to Nadal. He and Djokovic have played four times, twice on clay. The Norwegian has yet to win a set.
The 24-year-old, who reached the 2021 US Open final, can take heart from his clinical semi-final destruction of the 22nd seed Alex Zverev. It finished 6-3, 6-4, 6-0.
And Zverev suggested that the same tension that overran Alcaraz might come back and insinuate itself into Djokovic.
Heights
"Novak is one of the best players in the world, that's for sure," said Zverev.
"But when you're on the brink of history I think that adds a little bit of pressure. You know, we are all human. Novak is human. We all feel it."
But 22 wins out of 33 finals would advocate that this is no ordinary being. It is a mortal designed for combat. An entity that thas reigned at the peak of the rankings for a record 387 weeks.
And, for arriving in the 2023 French Open final, Djokovic will return to the top of the tree to add a few more weeks to that tally from Monday.
"Yes, it's going to be tough, for sure," said Ruud. "He's playing for his 23rd title and I'm playing for my first.
"So I'm going to just try to play without pressure and just try to enjoy the moment. I think that was my mentality last year as well but it didn't go my way."
Of all the luck though. Nadal in 2022 and Djokovic in 2023. Despite displaying impressive consistency to advance to successive French Open finals, Ruud risks becoming a footnote.
"I've never beaten him before so I'm going to have to try to come up with a better game plan," added Ruud, who is trying to become the first Norwegian man to win a Grand Slam trophy.
"I know I'm going to have to play my A game, my best level that I've ever played if I want to have a chance."
Very few even afford him that solace, such is Djokovic's power.
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