PARIS — Moving within one victory of completing a career Grand Slam, Novak Djokovic reached the French Open final by getting past Andy Murray 6-3, 6-3, 5-7, 5-7, 6-1 on Saturday in the resumption of a suspended match.
The semifinal was halted at 3-all in the fourth set Friday night because of an incoming storm. Murray grabbed that set when they returned to the court, but Djokovic was superb in the fifth, and Saturday’s play took 61 minutes.
Djokovic said he played with “the right intensity” in the first two sets Friday, then needed to recover after “Andy found his confidence.”
Djokovic already owns eight major titles, but none from Roland Garros, where he lost the 2012 and 2014 finals to Rafael Nadal, the nine-time champion he eliminated in this year’s quarterfinals.
The top-seeded Djokovic stretched his winning streak to 28 matches by beating No. 3 Murray, a two-time major champion who had won his past 15 matches, all on clay.
In Sunday’s final, Djokovic will face No. 8 Stan Wawrinka with a chance to become only the eighth man in tennis history to own at least one trophy from each of the sport’s four most prestigious tournaments, adding to the five he already owns from the Australian Open, two from Wimbledon and one from the U.S. Open.
Beat Wawrinka, and Djokovic also would be the first man since Jim Courier in 1992 to win the Australian Open and French Open consecutively, putting him halfway to the first calendar-year Grand Slam in 46 years.
The 28-year-old Serb, who got married and had a child last year, has spoken about being content off the court and supremely confident on it. Who would argue? He is 41-2 this season with five titles.
“He is a machine,” Wawrinka said.
Thumbnail photo via Christophe Ena/Associated Press
