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It’s all boiled down to this. Novak Djokovic is on the hunt for his third US Open title, while Stan Wawrinka searches for his first in what is shaping up to be a blockbuster finale at Flushing Meadows. Follow all the live scores, highlights and tennis action on The Roar from 6am (AEST).
Djokovic has had one of the most interrupted and stop-start tournaments in recent memory on the way to a Grand Slam final.
The world No.1 didn’t even get on the court to play his second round match after Jiri Vesely pulled out through injury. Then in the third round, the game was cut short without one full set of tennis, with Mikhail Youzhny pulling out after six games.
Then to top it off, his much-anticipated quarter-final contest with Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga came to an abrupt end after the end of the second set.
All in all, the Serbian only completed three of his six matches with just one straight-sets win in the tournament, over the unseeded Kyle Edmund in the Fourth Round.
Wawrinka’s journey to his maiden US Open final has been a little bit different, going through a five-set scare in the third round, six tiebreakers through the tournament, coming back from behind twice, plus three four-setters in his last three matches coming into the final.
Wawrinka has a short but ultimately impressive record in Slam finals. The Swiss right-hander is two from two in the big matches and has astonishingly beaten the world No.1 on both occasions as an underdog.
In fact, his French Open win in 2015 was against Djokovic and denied him a calendar and career grand slam, an incredible, rare feat.
As mentioned, Wawrinka has never been in the final of the US Open, having made the semi-finals twice in the last three years before now.
Djokovic, on the other hand, will be coming into his seventh US Open final, having won just two of his six finals previously.
Djokovic currently holds an impressive 19-4 win-loss record against Wawrinka and is undefeated against him at the US Open, but in both of Wawrinka’s major wins, he’s beaten Djokovic on the way to glory.
Hunting for his 13th title and the experience of 20 finals already under his belt, Djokovic will be coming into this one as heavy favourite, considering he’d won four majors in a row before his shock exit from Wimbledon, and six of the last nine.
Wawrinka has proven in the past that he thrives off the pressure and lifts in the underdog role. He proved his detractors wrong after his first major win back in 2014, with another one year later, proving that he does belong at the top and it wasn’t a fluke.
Many might be quick to brush aside the tough Swiss third seed, but he has all the tools to take a third Slam.
The inconsistent tournament that Djokovic has had could be his undoing. With half the game time under his belt and a stuttering campaign that stopped as quickly as it would begin rolling, this could be a defining factor in the contest.
Prediction
It’s hard to go past a Novak Djokovic that has arguably been at his peak in the last 18-24 months. He’s brought a dominant cloud over the sport and his victories have been pouring down.
Wawrinka is the kind of gritty and tough tennis player that you can never write off up to the last point, and we should expect no different on the big occasion.
Djokovic should get the job done, but don’t expect a cruisy straight-sets win. Maybe one or two tiebreakers across a four-set win for Djokovic.
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