Key events
Preamble
Greatness in sport is easy to detect but difficult to measure. Obviously there are numbers – 22 Grand Slams, say, or 387 weeks as world No 1 – but love is about feelings not statistics, and sport is so closely aligned with love the two are almost indivisible.
If Novak Djokovic wins today, he becomes the most successful men’s tenniser ever, out on his own on 23 majors – three ahead of Roger Federer, one ahead of Rafael Nadal – and the first to win each title thrice. Thrice! But to reduce him to those digits is to miss the experience of watching one of the most freakish athletes, competitors and intellects the world has ever seen.
Physically, Djokovic is perfect, a lean, honed, absolute specimen made of elasticated girders covered in purple velvet, but mentally he is even better. His relentless dedication to tennis – to himself – is both affirming and terrifying, his refusal to be beaten as inspirational as his desperation to win, and his ability to do the right thing, over and over and over again, is like nothing we’ve seen before. He is a genius of geometry and of spirit, a triumph of the human capacity for self-realisation and self-actualisation, and he’s nowhere near finished.
All of which adds up a tricky afternoon for Casper Ruud, who has no obvious path to victory. He does more or less what Djokovic does, just significantly less well, lacking a great weapon, unusual feel or top level that, if they click, can override what reality tells us is inevitable. But one reason we love this thing of ours is that once people start doing stuff, all sorts of other stuff can happen, and Ruud, playing his second consecutive Roland-Garros final and third Slam final in a year, will have convinced himself he’s ready to shock the world. Whatever happens from here, this is going to be epochal.
Play: 2.30pm local, 1.30pm BST