Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray will play for the 35th time on Sunday when they meet during the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals title match in London.
And when you play someone that often, apparently you develop a special bond, a “romance” as Djokovic called it on Saturday. Or, as he clarified later, a “bromance”.
After his 6-1, 6-1 semi-final win against Kei Nishikori, Djokovic was asked about playing Murray with the year-end No. 1 Emirates ATP Ranking on the line during the final match of the season. This is the first time the top spot will be decided by the top two players in the championship match of the season finale.
“Seems like a movie story scenario. It's a script,” Djokovic said.
The reporter then asked, “Can you reflect on that?” to which Djokovic responded, “It's a long story. A romance I'll call it,” he said and then laughed.
A bromance, the reporter injected. “Bromance,” Djokovic agreed. “Let's be correct.”
Fans might just call the rivalry between Djokovic and Murray one of the most memorable of 2016. Sunday's title match will mark the fifth time they've met this season, and all of their match-ups have come in finals.
Djokovic has won three of the four meetings: Australian Open final, Mutua Madrid Open final, and the Roland Garros final. Murray, though, beat Djokovic during the Internazionali BNL d'Italia title match in Rome, where he began to chip away at Djokovic's 9,025-point lead in the Emirates ATP Rankings.
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“The results, I can't predict,” Djokovic said on Saturday night. “I can't expect anything except to really get myself in the right state of mind and try to perform as well as I did tonight. That's going to be my only goal.”
The Serbian will be going for an unprecedented fifth consecutive title at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals and a joint record sixth overall (with Federer). Murray will be playing in his first Barclays ATP World Tour Finals title match.
Djokovic, though, could certainly be the fresher of the two. He has spent six hours and 33 minutes on court in London, while Murray has spent nine hours and 56 minutes.
This week, the Scot twice set the record for the longest three-set match in season finale history. On Wednesday during round-robin play, he beat Nishikori 6-7(9), 6-4, 6-4 in three hours and 20 minutes. During Saturday's semi-final, Murray outlasted Milos Raonic 4-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(9) in three hours and 38 minutes.
“It wasn't just that it was physically hard, it was mentally a tough match, too,” Murray said of his semi-final bout.
But the Brit will have months of momentum and the home London crowd on his side. After starting 13-4 through April, Murray has gone 64-5 since May, a run that includes 12 finals in 13 tournaments. He's currently on a 23-match win streak.
“Andy, you cannot take anything away from what he did in the last four, five months... He deserves to be in the situation where he is at the moment. He's No. 1 of the world,” Djokovic said. “Even though he has had a couple of very long matches in the last couple days, I doubt that he's going to feel tired. I know that he's very fit. He's committed to the working ethics. He's going to do everything to recover and to be ready.”