The final of the last Grand Slam event of 2015 happens today and unlike the women’s event where the top two players in the world were eliminated at the final four stage the men’s US Open Final sees Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer take to the courts at Flushing Meadows looking to claim their second and sixth titles in the biggest North American tennis event respectively.
The two players are familiar foes having met on 41 occasions previously with the 34 year old Swiss world number two having taking 21 victories against the Serbian who sits atop the ATP rankings and has six years on his US Open Final opponent. They have already clashed on five occasions this year and although Djokovic leads 3-2 it is Federer who claimed the last victory – in Cincinnati three weeks ago – to move 21-20 ahead on their personal scorecard after Djokovic drew level with victory in the Wimbledon final to take his second Grand Slam of 2015. Can he make it three from four in the biggest events this year?
Online sportsbook Betfair.com believe that it’ll be Djokovic who lifts the title in Queens on Sunday night, but their 2015 US Open Final betting odds suggest that anyone writing off Federer does so at their own peril.
Novak Djokovic to win the 2015 US Open – 1.72
Roger Federer to lift the US Open trophy – 2.10
After cruising through the opening two rounds of the tournament the world number one found going slightly tougher as he hit the seeded players in round three. He managed a straight sets win over 25th seed Andreas Seppi but he did need to win the last sets 7-5 to progress and after this rounds four and the quarter final stage saw him drop the second set to 23rd and 18th seeds Roberto Bautista Agut and Feliciano Lopez. However, he turned on the style in the semi final stages with a devastating 6-0, 6-1, 6-2 win over defending champion Marin Cilic to book his place in his fifth US Open final in six years.
While the slight outsider to win this tournament did not dazzle the world by beating the defending champion at Flushing Meadows with the loss of just three games, Roger Federer has been Mr. Consistent in New York. He is yet to drop a set despite a much tougher draw than that of his Serbian opponent and the only match he was really troubled in came at the fourth round stage as he edged out home favourite John Isner 7-6, 7-6, 7-5 before seeing off 12th seed Richard Gasquet and winner of the French Open and last year’s Australian Open Stan Wawrinka with the loss of just seven and eight games.
Victory for Federer, which we tipped in our ATP US Open preview, will see him become the most successful player at Flushing Meadows in the Open era by moving one win clear of Pete Sampras and Jimmy Connors and this along with claiming his first Grand Slam title since 2012 will see the man with a 17 year pro career more motivated than usual. That recent beating of Djokovic in Cincinnati and the loss in the final of his favoured event at Wimbledon will reinforce this so we’re feeling secure enough with our pick on the outright winner of this competition!
However, no matter you see this final playing out you can be sure that the world number one will be no pushover and as he showed against Cilic on Friday night the Serbian is more than capable of destroying any player. That said we still see Federer winning this match, but we see Djokovic taking at least one set – and we wouldn’t be surprised to see this go to five sets.
EE US OPEN FINAL PICK:
Our money is on Federer to win the title not in straight sets at odds of 3.00 with Betfair.com.