Casper Ruud, on Court Philippe-Chatrier, trying to stop his opponent making history.

That will be the tale of the Roland Garros championship match for the second consecutive year as the Norwegian takes on Novak Djokovic on Sunday in Paris. With victory, Djokovic will secure a record 23rd major title and become the first man to win each Grand Slam tournament at least three times.

In 2022, Ruud took on Rafael Nadal in his maiden major final in the French capital, where the Spaniard charged to a then-record-extending 22nd major trophy. Having now reached three finals in the space of five major events, the Norwegian possesses considerably more big-stage experience this time around as he bids to deny Djokovic a groundbreaking triumph of his own in Sunday’s championship match (from 2:30pm CEST/8:30am EDT).

Despite playing with so much at stake, the 36-year-old Djokovic believes treating Sunday’s clash as just another match will be key for him to win his sixth title in his past eight major campaigns and simultaneously secure his return to No. 1 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings.

“I hope that I’ll play my best tennis level on Sunday,” said Djokovic on Friday after his four-set semi-final triumph against World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz. “The only thing I can say now is that I’m very focused. History is always something that’s hovering over me, but I’m very happy to be in this position to write history of this sport, but I’m just thinking about winning the next match.”

Most Grand Slam Men’s Singles Titles (All-Time)

Ruud is under no illusions about the task that lies ahead as he bids to become the first Norwegian to win a major title. The 24-year-old, who also reached the championship match at the US Open last September, has not won a set in his four previous ATP Head2Head clashes with Djokovic.

“It’s going to be tough, for sure,” said Ruud, who defeated Alexander Zverev in straight sets with a dominant semi-final display on Friday night in Paris. “He’s playing for his 23rd. 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 [against Nadal] as well, and it didn’t go my way. Obviously, I would like to try to do better than last year. Let’s see if I have learned something from the two previous [major finals] that I played last year. It just feels great to be back.”

Final Preview @rolandgarros

Can Ruud overcome Djokovic’s 4-0 dominance in their head-to-head?

Radar 📊 with 🔢’s from their 2022 1/2 final in Rome (last clay court meeting)

To win his first Grand Slam, Ruud needs to;
🎾 Raise his #Conversion score
🎾 Close the gap on Bh… pic.twitter.com/6CSKlosDSF

— Tennis Insights (@tennis_insights) June 10, 2023

Both players have made their way through the draw with relative ease this fortnight in Paris. Djokovic dropped just two sets across his six matches to become the second-oldest finalist in Roland Garros history (since 1925). He was in imperious form in the first set against World No. 1 Alcaraz on Friday and was ruthless in securing victory after the Spaniard began to cramp early in the third set.

Although renowned for his miraculous defensive abilities, it was the Serbian’s ferocious ballstriking that underpinned his early burst against Alcaraz. Djokovic will use his power and accuracy from the baseline to test Ruud in a similar fashion on Sunday and he possesses the ability to change things up with his drop shot should he need to.

The Serbian will also try to minimise the damage from Ruud’s ferocious forehand, which has spearheaded the 24-year-old’s charge in the French capital. The Norwegian has dropped just three sets in Paris himself and dismantled Zverev with a stunning display of consistent heavy hitting on Friday. He will know he needs to produce a similar level against Djokovic if he is going to defeat the seven-time year-end No. 1 for the first time.

Ruud has been one of the ATP Tour’s dominant forces on clay for the past three years. Even during a 2023 season in which he has struggled to consistently produce his best level, the Norwegian still claimed his 10th ATP Tour title in Estoril and reached an ATP Masters 1000 semi-final in Rome thanks to his proficiency on the surface.

Most Tour-level Wins On Clay Since 2020

Beating Djokovic over five sets is a different prospect altogether, however. The Serbian is chasing his 21st consecutive match win at major tournaments and will not panic if Ruud makes a fast start on Court Philippe-Chatrier.

“I’m just going to try to play without too much emotion,” said Ruud. “I think that’s when I can play my best tennis, when I don’t overthink the situation and think too much that I have to win this match, because then things go on automatic mode.”

Playing the opponent and not the occasion will also be the foundation of Djokovic’s approach as he seeks to embellish his legacy as one of the greatest players in history.

“Experience [is] on my side,” said the Serbian on Friday. “But does it win matches? I don’t think so. I just have to recover well, be prepared for another long battle, and after the finals, if I win, let’s talk about history.”

How do you deal with the weight of expectation? Relish it, according to Novak Djokovic.

The Serbian moved within one win of a record 23rd major trophy on Friday by defeating World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz to reach the championship match at Roland Garros. Djokovic pulled away from the physically ailing Spaniard after a pulsating opening two sets to clinch a four-set triumph and move to the brink of history.

“Pressure is always on my shoulders, so it’s not going to be different,” said the 36-year-old, who would move ahead of Rafael Nadal in the Grand Slam titles race by defeating Casper Ruud in Sunday’s final. “But it’s part of my sport, part of my life, all that I do. I think that having pressure is a privilege. But it’s a source of motivation, as well. Great motivation to play well and to reach Sunday.

“Before the tournament I was saying that of course for me Roland Garros is a Grand Slam, and it’s the most important tournament on this surface. So I was well-prepared so that I would be in this position, so that I would be ready for this battle to win this other Grand Slam title.

“I hope that I’ll play my best tennis level on Sunday. The only thing I can say now is that I’m very focused. History is always something that’s hovering over me, but I’m very happy to be in this position to write history of this sport, but I’m just thinking about winning the next match.”

Djokovic produced some of his best tennis of the fortnight in Paris early against Alcaraz, but the Spaniard had struck back to level the pair’s semi-final at one-set-all when he began to suffer from debilitating cramp that severely hindered his movement on Court Philippe-Chatrier. In true champion style, Djokovic stayed focused on his own game to clinch a comfortable victory in a match that had seemed set to become a Roland Garros classic.

“I have experienced that several times,” said Djokovic, when asked about Alcaraz’s post-match self-assessment that the tension of the encounter had contributed to his physical issues. “Early in my career I was struggling quite a bit physically. I can understand the emotions and circumstances that affect you mentally and emotionally.

“Being in one of the greatest tournaments of the world, [and] maybe for the first time in his career he was expected to win. He was maybe not an underdog, chasing the title and trying to win against a favourite. It was probably the other way around. So maybe that affected him. As he said, it probably did.”

Djokovic was in no doubt that 2022 US Open champion Alcaraz would soon come again on the Grand Slam stage, and likened the Spaniard’s tribulations on the Parisian clay to some that he went through earlier in his own career.

“It’s a part of the learning curve. It’s part of the experience,” said Djokovic, who had to wait three years between winning his first major title and his second. “He’s only 20. So, he’s got plenty of time.

“He’s showed so much maturity in the last couple of years. He appeared on the scene, just a few years ago, winning his first title, and only a year later he wins his first Grand Slam, and he becomes No. 1.

“I have tremendous respect for that, and he’s got a great coach, a great team of people around him. The career will be his. His career will be very successful if he manages obviously to keep healthy, because the game is there.”

Emulating past successes is never easy, but Casper Ruud made it appear so on Friday at Roland Garros.

The Norwegian charged to his third championship match in the space of five Grand Slam events with a seemingly nerveless 6-3, 6-4, 6-0 semi-final victory against Alexander Zverev at the clay-court major. Ruud, who was a finalist in Paris a year ago and at the 2022 US Open, delivered a performance full of his trademark clean baseline hitting to overwhelm Zverev and wrap a two-hour, nine-minute triumph on Court Philippe-Chatrier.

“Honestly I just went out there and tried to play without too many feelings, without thinking too much,” said Ruud in his on-court interview. “If it’s towards the end of the tournament, everyone here playing today has done well anyway. So I tried to play without pressure, without thinking too much, and not to play with too much emotion, if that makes sense.

“Today just went really well. From the beginning to the last point everything was going my way, luckily, and I’m just very happy to win this match.”

Ruud converted six of 10 break points he earned to book his spot in Sunday’s championship match, where he will play for his maiden major title. His opponent there will be two-time champion Novak Djokovic, who earlier defeated Carlos Alcaraz 6-3, 5-7, 6-1, 6-1.

Ruud arrived at Roland Garros with a modest 16-11 record for the year, but had shown recent signs of being back to his best after a difficult start to 2023. The 24-year-old lifted his 10th ATP Tour title in Estoril in April and reached an ATP Masters 1000 semi-final in Rome in May, and he has continued his resurgence in Paris by dropping just two sets en route to his third major final.

“I didn’t come into Roland Garros thinking I was a favourite to reach the final,” said Ruud. “Not at all. I was trying to think one match at a time, and let’s see how it goes from there.

“Obviously I [thought then that I] would love to be back in the final like last year, and I [was] always thinking about trying to defend this final spot from last year, but here we are, two weeks later. It’s been two very fun weeks here in Paris, just as fun as last year, and hopefully the third time can be the charm for me.”

The dominant feature of his performance against Zverev was his sheer relentlessness in making his opponent play. Ruud made just 19 unforced errors across the three sets, compared to 37 for Zverev, and his rocket forehand was the key weapon behind his final tally of 25 winners.

Zverev dropped his opening service game of the match but immediately responded with a break of his own in the third game for 1-2. That was as good as it got for the German, who did not break his opponent’s serve again. Ruud notched another break in the next game and was hugely effective at blunting the 22nd seed’s booming delivery with some razor-sharp returning throughout.

A solitary break in the seventh game was enough for Ruud to seal the second set and he raced to victory from there as a tiring Zverev struggled to stick with his opponent. The fourth seed cruised to the third set without facing a break point to complete his triumph and level his ATP Head2Head series with the German at 2-2.