History Beckons As Djokovic Meets Murray For Paris Title
Riding a 21-match winning streak, World No. 1 Novak Djokovic stands to etch out several more slices of history should he defeat second seed Andy Murray when the two go toe to toe in Sunday’s BNP Paribas Masters decider. With the final to mark the end of the ATP World Tour regular season, the Serb will look to cap an already astonishing run this against a player he has beaten five times this year and fallen to just once.
Djokovic is now just one match shy of becoming the first player to capture six ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles in a season since the events were linked in 1990 and is trying to become the first four-time champion in tournament history, surpassing his coach Boris Becker and former World No. 1 Marat Safin’s trio of Paris titles. It would mark the second time in his career after 2011 he has won 10 titles in a season.
With his three-set triumph over his Roland Garros nemesis Stan Wawrinka in the semi-finals, Djokovic became the first player in the Open Era to reach 14 straight finals in a calendar year, with his last pre-final defeat coming in the Doha quarter-finals to Ivo Karlovic at the start of the year. Roger Federer reached 17 straight finals but across two seasons in 2005 and 2006. Not since top seed Stefan Edberg beat second-seeded Becker in 1990 have the top two seed met for the Paris title.
Murray, the first British finalist since Tim Henman won the title in 2003, will secure the year-end No. 2 ranking by defeating the Serb. The Scot has never finished a season higher than No. 3, doing so in 2012 after claiming the Olympic gold medal and US Open.
Murray is appearing in his seventh different ATP Masters 1000 final, only missing Monte-Carlo and Rome. Djokovic has played in all nine ATP Masters 1000 finals, with Cincinnati the sole title he has yet to claim. In 2015 alone, the Serb has won ATP Masters 1000 titles at Indian Wells, Miami, Monte-Carlo, Rome and Shanghai. Murray has dropped one set en route to the final, beating Richard Gasquet in a three-set semi-final on Friday but will need to defy the pair’s FedEx Head2Head record, in which Djokovic has won nine of his past 10 meetings with the Scot (20-9 overall).
In the doubles final, unseeded Vasek Pospisil and Jack Sock are playing for their second ATP Masters 1000 title, as well as the eighth and final spot at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals. However, if the 25-year-old Canadian and 23-year-old American fall to No. 2 seeds Marcelo Melo and Ivan Dodig, then BNP Paribas Masters quarter-finalists Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea will secure the last ticket to London on November 15.
The BNP Paribas Masters is Pospisil and Sock’s 12th event of the season, fewest among the Top 10 teams in the Emirates ATP Doubles Race to London. They’ve also overcome a five-match summer losing streak, winning the Beijing title in October to get back in the race.
That win will be difficult to come by against Melo and Dodig. Melo is on a 15-match winning streak, including three titles in as many weeks at Tokyo (w/Raven Klaasen), the Shanghai Rolex Masters (w/Klaasen) and Vienna (w/Lukasz Kubot). The 32-year-old Brazilian arrived in Paris as the new No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Doubles Rankings, and he will leave as the year-end No. 1. Melo is the first year-end No. 1 other than Bob or Mike Bryan since Nenad Zimonjic in 2008. He joins countryman and good friend Gustavo Kuerten, who topped the year-end singles rankings in 2000.