The top two seeds and arguably two best players in the world meet for the biggest prize on offer so far this summer at the final of the Rogers Cup in Toronto on Sunday.
Rogers Cup final: (1) Novak Djokovic vs (2) Andy Murray
Djokovic has won 29 straight Masters 1000 matches dating back to Cincinnati last year. Murray is in his second Masters final this year, having also played for the title in Miami.
This is the fifth meeting between the Serb and the Scot this year with the #1 player in the world having triumphed in the previous four matches. Their last meeting was a five-set, two-day Djokovic win in the French Open semifinals, and was the closest Murray has come to beating Djokovic this year.
Djokovic beat Jeremy Chardy 6-4, 6-4 to reach the finals.
Djokovic said he was annoyed during his match against Chardy by the smell of marijuana smoke coming from the stands.
“You can’t believe how bad it was. I think it stopped after a while. Whoever it was … he was probably on the seventh sky somewhere,” said the Serb.
Murray dominated Kei Nishikori 6-3, 6-0 in the other semi-final.
“It’s nice to get back especially after everything I went through last year with the (hip) surgery and dropping out of the top 10,” Murray said. “A lot of questions were being asked about how my game was physically.
“It’s good to get back close to the top. I’ll keep working hard and try to get that one spot higher.”
The second seed has looked better this week and Djokovic had to save two match points in the quarterfinals vs Ernests Gulbis. In what should be a long, grinding affair, I will take Murray to finally break through against Djokovic this year.
Prediction: Murray 6-4 5-7 7-5
