Maiden French Open title gives Serb career Grand Slam

The world’s best tennis player is in the form of his life following his 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 final success over Murray at Roland Garros and is the favourite to win his 13th Grand Slam title, per OddsChecker.

Novak Djokovic made history on Sunday morning, becoming the first man in nearly 50 years to win four consecutive Grand Slam titles.

He also became the first man since Jim Courier in 1992 to clinch the Australian and French Opens back-to-back and therefore put himself in a position to grab a calendar Grand Slam which has only been achieved three times – by Don Budge in 1938 and Laver in 1962 and 1969. With it, he completed a career Grand Slam, joining a group of seven other men, including Federer and Nadal.

But he failed while even the likes of Djokovic’s biggest contemporary rivals, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have never yet even held all four majors at the same time even though they have completed career grand slams.

“It’s a very special moment, the biggest of my career”, said Djokovic. “I felt that support and love from the people around that allowed me to be sitting here with the trophy”. For longer perspective, Djokovic has won six of the last eight Grand Slams. “Right now I’m very disappointed”.

Djokovic has now won 28 Grand Slam matches in a row, a streak that began at Wimbledon past year. Muguruza defeated Serena Williams of the U.S.in their final match of the French Open tennis tourna…

“This is his day today”, Murray of Scotland said on court of Djokovic, his voice cracking. After that Djokovic sailed with relative ease until a late comeback attempt by Murray in the fourth set brought it to 5-4.

The Paris crowd, aware of just how desperate Djokovic was to lift their trophy, gave him a prolonged ovation.

Djokovic’s major trophy count is now up to 12, trailing only three men – Federer (who has 17), Nadal (14) and Pete Sampras (14). As a downbeat Murray said on Sunday: “What Novak has achieved in the past year has been phenomenal”. “I have been “close-ish” to winning all of the Slams now and, you know, unfortunately all of them have done it instead”.

Djokovic kept his foot on Murray’s throat, breaking in the first game of the fourth set as the second seed carried on a running argument with the umpire over the positioning of the overhead camera.

For Djokovic, this was the culmination of years of not quite getting across the line at Roland Garros. Federer and Nadal, who are a part of the same tennis era as Djokovic, have each been called the greatest tennis player of all time. He’s also in what appears to be his prime, only two weeks past his 29th birthday, demonstrating in Paris that his body-contorting, no-ball-gets-past-me defense, best-in-the-world returns and improved serve are too much for most every opponent to handle.

Previous year in the US Open final, Djokovic stood in front of a pro-Federer Arthur Ashe Stadium and took down the Swiss amidst bellowing chants of fans rooting against him.

Meanwhile next month’s Wimbledon beckons, and another chance to set the record straight – this time on a surface on which the Serbian has never beaten him.