Murray and Djokovic to provide epic collision between friends and rivals
It may work. It would work even better if they would include plans for a roof in their $500 million rebuilding of the site over the next five years.
But we have what we have, and that is a fascinating final in prospect.
Murray sped through to it like a leaf tossed in a breeze in four sets on Saturday, grinding out a clever windy win against the stubborn but ultimately bewildered Tomas Berdych in what the Scot described as the “most brutal” match he has ever played in. Berdych agreed.
Djokovic beat Ferrer 2-6, 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 in a little over two and a half hours, but it was a grimmer struggle than those numbers suggest.
While Ferrer fought, as ever, for every point, Djokovic fought with more art and science. His movement, flexibility and power are in prime working order. He hit seven aces, the quickest 127mph, and won 106 points, 20 more than Ferrer.
Djokovic reached his third consecutive final here with a blitz of a fine opponent, moving John McEnroe to observe: “The quality was extraordinary, it really was. I am so looking forward to the final.”
Murray has had the chance to think about this match – and recover – since the hairily physical battle he had with Berdych, not long before storms and gales returned to New York to lash the city with venomous force on Saturday evening. It was such a wild ride of weather that the tournament organisers locked journalists, players and staff inside the building until the danger of a revived tornado passed.
Who will prevail when the storm on the court returns today? Djokovic will start a marginal favourite, whatever his diplomacy yesterday.
It has been a curiously lopsided year for him after his wondrous deeds of 2011 when he looked and was invincible. That could not last, of course, but he has rediscovered a good measure of that form.
Murray, too, has operated at an impressively high level. In his important wins, he has shown a new maturity, in demeanour and in the quality of his tennis. Sometimes he has dipped, but not often.
Sometimes he has struggled, but he has mostly prevailed, as he is accustomed to doing in adversity, never more starkly than against Berdych, although it was an entirely different test from the examination of his talent against the eventual champion Djokovic in the marathon semi-final in Melbourne.
That was an astounding exhibition of prolonged quality tennis, and it could have gone either way.
Their form here is the most relevant and there has not been a lot between them, even though the 2-6 against Ferrer was the first set Djokovic has dropped.
However, I am drawn to Murray for two reasons: he has never been hungrier to realise the expectations heaped on him by a nation and deliver a hoodoo-breaking victory in a slam final; but, more importantly, he has never been better placed to do so for himself.
I think he could win a classic encounter in five sets.
Guardian Service
