French Open: Andy Murray powers past Stan Wawrinka to book final date with Novak Djokovic

Wawrinka was on a 12-match winning streak at Roland Garros, having overpowered Novak Djokovic in the final 12 months ago

(Getty)

Cream always rises to the top and on Sunday the French Open will end here with a chance to enjoy la crème de la crème. Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray, the world No 1 and No 2 respectively, will meet in the final of a Grand Slam tournament for the seventh time in their careers after both won their semi-finals in convincing fashion.

Murray produced one of the best clay-court performances of his life to beat Stan Wawrinka, the defending champion, 6-4, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2, while Novak Djokovic swept aside the young Austrian upstart, Dominic Thiem, winning 6-2, 6-1, 6-4 to reach the 20th Grand Slam final of his career.

Although Murray will not be satisfied with simply making the final, there should be no under-estimating the enormity of his achievement in getting there.

This was the only Grand Slam tournament where he had not made the final and he will become the first British player to contest the final here since Bunny Austin in 1937. The only British player to have won the title is Fred Perry, who was the champion in 1935 and 1936. Murray will also equal Perry’s British record of 10 Grand Slam finals.

His voice cracking with emotion, Murray said in a post-match interview on the court: “I’m extremely proud. I never expected to reach the final here. I had always struggled on the clay but in the last two years I’ve had some of my best results. I’m very proud to have reached the final here and I hope I can put on a good match for the crowd on Sunday.”

Murray has lost 23 of his 33 matches against Djokovic, but beat him in the final to win both his Grand Slam titles, at the 2012 US Open and at Wimbledon the following year. He also won their most recent meeting, in the clay-court final at last month’s Rome Masters. Djokovic’s four victories over Murray in Grand Slam finals have all been at the Australian Open.

Djokovic, who already has 11 Grand Slam titles to his name, will be playing in his sixth consecutive Grand Slam final. He needs victory here to become only the eighth player in history to win all four Grand Slam titles. He has lost in three of the last four Roland Garros finals - twice to Rafael Nadal and once to Wawrinka.


 Andy Murray celebrates his victory 
 (Getty)

Murray said that Djokovic had been “by far the No 1 player in the world” for more than two years but added: “Anything can happen in a one-off match.”

If Murray plays as well as he did to beat Wawrinka he will have every chance. Playing in his fourth semi-final here, the 29-year-old Scot gave an almost faultless performance. Earlier in the tournament there were matches where he seemed to become distracted as he shouted and scowled in the general direction of his entourage, but here he was totally focused on his task. He served well and struck the ball consistently throughout.

From being a player who always said that clay presented his greatest challenge, Murray has become a master of the surface over the last two years. Since 2014 he has won three clay-court titles and lost only to Djokovic and Nadal on the surface.

Under constant assault from the power and accuracy of Murray’s ground strokes, Wawrinka was never given the chance to settle into any sort of rhythm. The 31-year-old Swiss made 43 unforced errors to Murray’s 22 and regularly got into trouble on his serve as the Scot peppered him with potent returns. Murray converted five of his 15 break points, while Wawrinka converted one of his five.

On another cold and gloomy day, the thinking in some quarters had been that the slower and heavier conditions might be to Wawrinka’s advantage, but Murray was on his game from the start. Having saved a break point with a volley at 1-1 he broke Wawrinka in the next game, completing the job with an athletic overhead backhand.

Murray served out for the set at 5-4 but was made to work for it. Wawrinka had three break points, two of which Murray saved with unreturned serves, and saved the Scot’s first set point with a big forehand, but on the second could not keep his return in court.

After the first set had taken 53 minutes, the second flew by in just 27 minutes as Murray turned on the style after Wawrinka put an attempted drop shot in the net when he served at 1-1 and 0-40. The Swiss won only 14 points in the whole set, including just three against serve.

Andy Murray in action against Stanislas Wawrinka in the French Open semi-final (Getty)

The third set was much tighter. Murray had just one break point, which Wawrinka saved in the third game with an unreturned serve. Wawrinka also had only one, when Murray served at 4-5. Murray failed to put away a smash and on his next shot put a backhand in the net.

Wawrinka, who as a French-speaking Swiss is a favourite with the public here, had not given the crowd much to cheer about until this point, but they had turned up the volume towards the end of the third set and were clearly relishing the prospect of a comeback by the defending champion.

Murray, however, quickly put an end to such thoughts by breaking in the opening game of the fourth set when Wawrinka hit a forehand beyond the baseline. The Scot broke again to go 5-2 up and completed victory on his first set point after two hours and 35 minutes.

“I knew that if I was going to win today I would have to play one of my best clay-court matches,” Murray said afterwards. “Stan has played unbelievable tennis in the last two years and he had been playing better with every match here.”

Murray’s former coach, Amelie Mauresmo, talking to him directly on television after the match, said: “Congratulations. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you play like that in a match like that at this level.

Wawrinka paid credit to Murray, saying the Scot’s excellence had made him unusually hesitant. “He was the strongest player on the court and he knew what to do against me,” Wawrinka said.

Thiem has made a big breakthrough here in the last fortnight, but taking on Djokovic in his first Grand Slam semi-final proved to be a challenge too far. The 22-year-old Austrian, who will break into the world’s top 10 for the first time next week, was on the back foot from the start as Djokovic took a 3-0 lead in the opening set and went on to play some stunning tennis for the rest of the match.

In the third set Thiem sparked brief hopes of a revival when he won the first three games, but Djokovic quickly restored order by winning the next five games.