There is a first time for everything, so the saying goes. In the last thirteen months Andy has gone from being an ‘also ran’ at clay tournaments to winning his first, closely followed by his second. After that he won his first set and then his second in a French Open semi-final, six months later he won – with some help from his big brother Jamie – the Davis Cup final on clay. Six months and three days later Andy reached his first final at Roland Garros, defeating reigning champion Stan Wawrinka in what was one of his very best performances on clay - perhaps tactically one of the best matches he has ever played in a slam - in four sets.
The player once dubbed the ‘history boy’ by a BBC broadcast has done it again. The first British man in the Open Era to reach a final at the second slam of the season, the first British man to reach a final at the Porte d’Auteuil since Bunny Austin in 1937. In doing so Andy has become the tenth player in the Open Era to reach the final of all four slams. If he wins on Sunday he will become the first British player to win the French Open since Sue Barker lifted the women’s trophy forty years ago in 1976, the first British man since Fred Perry in 1935.
It is hard to believe that the man who struggled on clay for much of his career, battled with an increasingly problematic back injury in 2012, which eventually forced him to abandon the clay season in 2013, is now statistically the best player on the surface on the ATP tour. Since beginning his European clay court season in 2015 Andy has secured a 35-3 win-loss record - 92.1% - and gone from having just one top ten win in nine years, to having nine wins against top ten players in the space of a little over thirteen months. Of all the players on tour he has had the best European clay court season in 2016, reaching the semi-final in Monte Carlo, the final in Madrid, and winning in Rome.
So much of that improvement rests on his confidence in his movement on clay. That confidence has stemmed from trusting his post-surgery spine and working extensively on his movement on the surface during a training block in Barcelona shortly after getting married last April.
It was a training block that nearly didn’t happen. Andy had been keen to play in Monte Carlo a mere two days after his wedding to Kim Sears, but was persuaded by his then head coach Amelie Mauresmo to take some rest and then train on clay to coincide with the ATP 500 tournament held in the Spanish city. Supervised by his coaching team – in particular Amelie and his ever present fitness trainer Matt Little, with additional valuable help with his movement and flexibility from gyrotronics instructor Teresina Goheen - he worked hard on the surface to become comfortable with the different types of movement required on clay, on the court he worked out not only how to construct points better but also how to make proper use of the variety of shot at his disposal.
The fruits of those labours were on display against Stan in the semi-final. Andy’s excellent movement and defence, his intelligent point construction, the use of variety, all caused immense frustration for the defending champion. Early on the world number four asked the Scot questions, Andy found all the answers and when it was his turn to do the asking the Swiss man found no solutions and became increasingly flustered. Buoyed by the crowd Stan made a brief resurgence at the end of the third set but soon found the door slammed in his face as Andy stamped his authority on Court Philippe Chatrier to earn his place in the final.
A year ago Andy had the form and the ability to get there, but not quiet the belief that a place in the final was a realistic possibility for him. Arriving at the tournament he told the press a semi-final would be a good result for him, and that is what he achieved. He fought hard in a five set match against Djokovic but couldn’t get over the last hurdle.
This year he arrived with more wins on clay, another Masters 1000 title on the surface, and wins over Nadal and Djokovic. This year he arrived with confidence and belief. This year he reached the final. A familiar foe awaits him there. World number one Novak Djokovic reached the final with a clinical straight-sets win over thirteenth seed Dominic Theim.
Since the start of the tournament the top two seeds have had struggles. Djokovic has had to contend with some of the worst weather the tournament has seen this century, forced to play three best-of-five matches over a four-day period. Andy meanwhile had to play ten sets in three days just to reach the third round and has been on court for five hours more than the top seed. Whether or not this will impact either man is debatable: they are without question the fittest players on tour. The adversity is more likely to have left them galvanised and battle hardened than weakened.
Sunday’s final will be the seventh grand slam final the two have contested. Djokovic leads the head-to-head in those cases 4-2, with all four of his wins coming in Melbourne at the beginning of the tennis season. It will be Andy’s tenth slam final, and Djokovic’s twentieth. Djokovic has had three previous attempts at this title and he wants it above all others. Last year the pressure was visible in his attitude on court and in the way he was hitting the ball, particularly on the forehand side.
They have never met in the final of Roland Garros before now. Reaching it this year means they will have played against each other in slam finals on every surface and at each of the four slams. It is the first time since 1984 – three years before they were born – that the top two seeds have faced each other in the French Open final with neither having won the title before. A new name will be added to the Coupe des Mousquetaires. Both men want it to be their name etched on the plinth for decades to come.
Andy has been widely congratulated for his performance in the semi-final; his use of variety has been a particular talking point. Speaking on ITV before the women’s singles final Martina Navratilova praised Andy’s feel on the ball to deliver deft dropshots, volleys, lobs, and lethal slices in extremely heavy conditions, noting how hard it is to do these things with the ball when it is damp and heavy with moisture and clay.
That variety will need to be put to full use in the final to create imbalances in rallies against perhaps the best baseline player the game has ever seen. Andy will need to disrupt Djokovic’s game as much as possible. He will need to serve well and protect his second serve. The work he did on his forehand in the 2015 off-season appears to be finally paying dividends and he is hitting it with greater authority. The way he played on Friday can only help to steel his confidence that he can cause the world number one serious difficulties on Sunday afternoon.
In a post-match interview on FranceTV Amelie congratulated him on what she believed to be the best match she had ever seen him play to reach his first French Open final, but swiftly noted that there is one more match to go. She knows perhaps better than anyone just how much Andy wants to win another slam, and he didn’t come to Paris to reach a final: he came to win it.
The weather is forecast to be cloudy with some sun breaking through, highs of 24 degrees Celsius, a north-easterly breeze of 4-8mph, with chances of thunderstorms around mid-morning, mid-afternoon, and in the early evening.
The match is scheduled to be played on Sunday 5th June, at 3pm local time, 2pm BST, on Court Philippe Chatrier.
Thank you to Bev for the excellent H2H.
