Two weeks of wonderful tennis draws to a close in New York on Sunday evening when the US Open men’s final takes place on the Arthur Ashe Stadium. In the men’s draw we’ve had a little bit of everything. We’ve had amazing matches, walkovers, strange matches and stacks of drama and we are left with a tantalising final.
For the second time in seven Grand Slams Novak Djokovic and Stan Wawrinka will do battle for the title after they battled it out for the French Open last year, a final which Wawrinka won to prolong Djokovic’s anguish at getting the career slam, something he has since achieved of course.
Novak Djokovic
It is very hard to assess Novak Djokovic’s tournament but the one thing we can be sure of is that he won’t forget this event for a while. He has had three of his six opponents withdraw or retire on him and then he has seen someone not try for periods and in among all that he has played some good tennis and been on the receiving end of some.
It is hard to know what to take from Djokovic’s semi-final. For a set Monfils looked to be tanking it and then nearly levelled it up and then he played a bit of rub-a-dub in the second set only to lose that tamely too and then all of a sudden he started overpowering and outplaying Djokovic before a lack of belief cost the Frenchman.
Stan Wawrinka
If you had asked me at the middle period of this tournament whether I had the Swiss star to make the final I would have given you a funny look and laughed but you have to admire the ability of Stan Wawrinka to get better the bigger the match is and if he continues to do that then we have a serious final on our hands.
Let’s make no mistake about it. Wawrinka should have lost to Dan Evans in the third round but since then he has improved match by match and the way he powered past both Juan Martin del Potro and Kei Nishikori was impressive. What was just as impressive was how he needed to adjust to getting beaten in both matches but he did that and ran out a comfortable winner.
Head to Head
These two are certainly no strangers to each other. They have met each other on 23 previous occasions on the main tour with Djokovic enjoying a 19-4 head to head lead but when that is whittled down to Grand Slam meetings Djokovic’s advantage is only 4-2 with Wawrinka winning that French Open final last year and their meeting in the Australian Open the year before.
In total these two have played seven best of five set matches and five of them have gone the distance so when these two collide they tend to bring the very best out of each other for long periods.
Betting
I’m really looking forward to this final. I love this particular match up and one of the reasons why I love it is Stan Wawrinka just never backs down against Djokovic and unlike Gael Monfils who never once believed he could beat Djokovic we know the Swiss star believes and he’s a very dangerous animal.
I’ve mentioned above how Wawrinka has improved with every round in this tournament. Since he moved onto the Ashe court he has been powerful, precise and very strong and I feel he can take this final. He is a big match player and two statistics highlight that. Firstly he has won both of his Grand Slam finals – against Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic no less, and secondly he has won his last 10 finals. That is big time stuff.
Of course Novak Djokovic is every bit as big time but I don’t believe the Serb is fit. He has had treatment in every completed match he has played and at times against Monfils in the semis, admittedly in humid conditions, he looked spent. The longer this goes the more I fancy Stan Wawrinka.
You have to admire how Djokovic has made it this far clearly not at 100% but I sense he’ll be found out here. There is a belief and a determination in Wawrinka that can carry him to the win. I’ll take him to win and given how these two like to go the distance in five set matches I’ll push the boat out a bit and take the Stanimal to win 3-2.
Tips
WON – Back S.Wawrinka to beat N.Djokovic for a 3/10 stake at 3.50 with Betfair
Back him here:
Back S.Wawrinka to win 3-2 for a 1/10 stake at 8.50 with 888sport
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