What a day for Andy Murray! It’s now break point and match point to the Scot who leads 5-3 … and he WINS! Andy Murray beats Novak Djokovic in straight sets 6-3, 6-3 to take the Rome Masters title.
It’s a pretty routine second set with the scorelines now at 2-2. Djokovic is a bit frustrated with himself with a few shots and emulates Serena Williams in cursing himself... and he’s got good reason. Murray’s up a break of serve at 4-2 and now at 4-3 Djokovic is an angry, angry man. He’s in a bit of a skirmish with the chair umpire, whom he accuses of “not caring about my ankle, three times, three times!”
Andy Murray wins the first set 6-3!
Up two breaks of serve, Andy Murray is on the verge of a first set victory! Unfortunately it looks like he’ll have to wait a little bit longer, with Djokovic holding serve to go 3-5.
And-he does it! Murray holds after breaking to take a 4-1 lead and is plowing through Djokovic’s defense like it’s butter.
Andy Murray breaks Novak Djokovic for a 3-1 lead!
Djokovic complains about the weather – and that’s not all he’s complaining about!
Raincoats coming on and umbrellas coming out... problems, problems for spectators and players! Andy Murray’s just held his service game for a 2-1 lead but Djokovic and Murray are both feeling it come down. It’s a bit heavier than spitting rain at the moment and the chair umpire appears to be getting ready to take a call.
Novak Djokovic wins his first service game to take the scoreline to 1-1 as he pulls out some serve and volley skills! There’s a beautifully smooth slide to the net to edge it past Murray – but now there’s another worry and it’s in the form of rain!
Another great rally and Murray’s pulling out the drop shots again! It’s a bit Federer-esque from him but to good effect – that's brought the game back to deuce and given Murray a chance to take it to break point.
Andy Murray serves – and holds! Quick stuff from the Scot to go 1-0 up on his 29th birthday. Now it’s Djokovic’s service game and Murray’s still fighting back! Break point, deuce, break point Murray again!
What a rally! Murray is throwing everything he’s got at Djokovic and all but had the break – his third break point. It’s just out and now it’s game point Djokovic.
Two tournaments, and two clay-court tournaments in a row, see World No. 1 Novak Djokovic take on Scottish ace Andy Murray. The last time the two took each other on, Murray was still World No. 2. With that finals loss at the Madrid Masters, Murray has now dropped to World No. 3 and also split with longtime coach Amelie Mauresmo.
Winning the Madrid Masters took Novak Djokovic to a record 29 Masters titles wins – an all-time high in the history of the game, and one ahead of Spanish ace Rafael Nadal, who may be known as the King of Clay – and even won the first two tournaments of the clay court season – but has since faltered, losing in fact to Murray early on.
Djokovic has seemed completely unassailable on every surface imaginable, and although he suffered a shock loss to Czech ace Jiri Vesely in his first match at the Monte Carlo Masters, the Serbian top seed has seemed to be unbeatable.
The World No. 1 struggled in his semi-final yesterday against Japan’s Kei Nishikori, who was immensely successful at taking Djokovic to break point – and capitalizing on them. He won the first set 6-2 with a struggling Djokovic spraying the court with unforced errors and appearing to struggle with his left ankle. Djokovic, coaches Boris Becker and Marian Vajda all looked concerned, and the Serb eventually called for a change of shoes mid-match.
That appeared to help, with Djokovic taking the second set and then the decider. That could still have gone either way, however, with the Japanese ace taxing him to a final set tiebreak – and ultimately, there was only a single point separating the pair even in the tiebreak.
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