Djokovic and Murray to Close Out 2012 U.S. Open
The 2012 U.S. Open comes to a close with a Monday men’s singles final for a fifth straight year—following 21 years without one—and what a finale it is: Australian Open champion and defending U.S. Open champion Novak Djokovic against the reigning Olympic Gold Medalist Andy Murray, bidding for his first Grand Slam title in his fifth Slam final. For Murray, history would come in many forms. With a victory today, he would be the first man to win the Olympic singles Gold Medal and the U.S. Open men’s singles title in the same year, and he would become just the fourth player to couple a U.S. Open junior title with a singles title in the men’s or women’s main draw, joining Lindsay Davenport, Stefan Edberg and the newly retired Andy Roddick.
There is also much on the line for Djokovic. Last year’s champion will be playing one day after completing his semifinal victory over David Ferrer, with an eye on becoming the first back-to-back men’s winner at the Open since Roger Federer and just the second since Patrick Rafter in 1998. A victory would also continue Djokovic’s run of dominance against lower-ranked or lower-seeded players at the U.S. Open—he is 36-0 in such matches, and he is 27-0 in his last 27 Grand Slam matches played on hard courts—and would snap a four-match losing streak for the men’s player who wins the second of the two semifinal matches—a streak started by Murray in 2008, which was the last time the men’s singles semifinals were completed on different days.
“Most of our matches that we played against each other were very close, and only small margins decide the winner," said Djokovic. "That’s something that is expected in a way, because we have similar games. You know, we are big
rivals and we have been on top of the men’s game for a long time, so we know each other really well. The last match he won in [the] Olympic Games. Also a close one. But it’s a different surface, obviously [and] with the different surface, different tactics apply. So we’ll see. Tomorrow I guess there is no clear favorite.”
The last time the two men’s semifinals were completed on different days was in 2008, when Roger Federer defeated Novak Djokovic on Saturday and the match between Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal, which had been moved to Louis Armstrong Stadium to accommodate the impending rainstorm, was interrupted and had to be completed on Sunday, with Murray winning to advance to his first Grand Slam tournament final. This year, Murray will be the beneficiary of the extra day’s rest, having finished his four-set semifinal victory over Tomas Berdych on Saturday, while Djokovic defeated David Ferrer yesterday. And recent history indicates that will be an advantage for Murray in today’s final. The winner of the second completed semifinal has lost four in a row in the men’s final and five of the last six overall.
With a victory today, Djokovic would earn $1.9 million as the 2012 U.S. Open men’s singles champion as well as an extra $1 million in bonus prize money as the 2012 Emirates Airline U.S. Open Series champion. That total payout of $2.9 million would break the previous record of $2.4 million set by Roger Federer as the Series champion and the U.S. Open champion in 2007. The women’s record is held by Kim Clijsters, who won $2.2 million as the Series and U.S. Open women’s singles champion in 2005 and again in 2012 as the U.S. Open champion and Series runner-up. Djokovic won $2.3 million last year as the US Open men’s singles champion and the Series runner-up.
Celebrities in attendance for Sundy, Day 14 of the Open included actors Will Ferrell, Jon Hamm, Stanley Tucci, Ed Westwick, Kellan Lutz, Judd Hirsch, Jim Caviezel, Paul Bettany and Kevin Spacey, actresses Jennifer Connelly, Amanda Seyfried and Minka Kelly, and singers Mandy Moore and Redfoo of LMFAO. The total attendance for Day 14 (women’s singles final) of the 2012 U.S. Open was a sold-out 23,771.
