It may not be an obsession but the dream for Novak Djokovic of winning the French Open, and with it securing a full set of grand slam titles, is just one win away after he produced a near-flawless performance to crush the hopes of Dominic Thiem 6-2, 6-1, 6-4 to reach the final at Roland Garros. At some stage in the next few years, the 22-year-old Thiem may go on to take Djokovic’s mantle as the world’s best player but for now there is only one maestro.
It is Djokovic’s sixth successive grand slam final, his 20th in all and fourth here, and having lost twice to Rafael Nadal and last year to Stan Wawrinka, the man is on a mission. Victory would give him a 12th grand slam title and he would be the eighth man to complete the career grand slam of Wimbledon, French Open, US Open and Australian Open.
Somehow, perhaps lost amid the discussions about the rain, the schedule, the agonisingly slow battle with Paris bureaucracy to approve the expansion of Roland Garros, the absence of Roger Federer and the withdrawal of Nadal, it has gone almost unnoticed that Djokovic is chasing not only a career grand slam but also a fourth consecutive grand slam title.
The “Nole slam” (or whatever you want to call it) is something Federer and Nadal did not manage in their illustrious careers, and something that was last achieved by Rod Laver, when he won the second of his calendar year grand slams in 1969. Laver was on the nearby Court Philippe Chatrier to watch the other semi-final here, between Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka, but if he had had the chance to see Djokovic he would have been mightily impressed.
No one deals with adversity better than the Serb these days and it is almost as if the battle with the schedule and the seeming unfairness of his half of the draw having to play on four successive days served merely to sharpen his mind. In years gone by he might have let it bother him, but this fortnight his concentration has been immense and Thiem, for all his undoubted talent, was not in the same league.
The Austrian has the game to be a world-beater himself and in his first grand slam semi-final he was far from overawed, but the 11-times grand slam champion came out firing and the pressure was relentless. Djokovic had won both their previous meetings, including a win this year in Miami, and it was a mark of the respect for his opponent that he came out all guns blazing. A break in Thiem’s first service game helped Djokovic to a 3-0 lead and it was all the eventual loser could do to stay vaguely in touch.
Thiem’s one-handed backhand has arguably been the shot of the tournament and when it found its mark the crowd on Court Suzanne-Lenglen – all of whom had paid no more than €20 for their ticket in a special initiative after all the rain – collectively gasped for breath. But Djokovic was utterly ruthless as he attacked it from the first ball, forcing Thiem to go for too much, too soon.
It was classic match-play from Djokovic and with the groundstrokes landing inches inside the baseline almost every time and his serve, return and drop shot working nicely, he was in utter control. – Agencies
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