Djokovic, Murray battle for Paris Masters today

Sunday, November 8, 2015 8:15 am

File: Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon in 2013

Tennis world number one, Novak Djokovic and world number 2, Andy Murray will battle for the BNP Paribas Masters trophy today.

The two leading tennis players last met in Shanghai where Djokovic raced to a 6-1, 6-3 win in the semi-finals.

Djokovic also beat Murray in ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events in Indian Wells and Miami, before Murray took him to five sets in the Roland Garros semi-finals.

The Scot then claimed victory in Montreal, marking his first win over Djokovic since Wimbledon 2013, before the Serb reasserted his dominance in China.

Overall, Djokovic owns a 20-9 edge in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series.

To land in the finals, his seventh this season, Murray defeated 2012 champion David Ferrer 6-4, 6-3 in the semi-finals and had overcome Borna Coric, David Goffin and the in-form Richard Gasquet en route.

Novak Djokovic also defeated Stan Wawrinka, the man who denied him of the complete Grand Slam this season.

Though Wawrinka lost 3-6, 6-3, 0-6 on Saturday, he was able to stop Djokovic’s run of straight sets victories at 29.

“It’s always a special kind of challenge because we have the rivalry that goes back for a long time,” said Djokovic of the next encounter with Murray.

“We played just recently in Shanghai. I played one of my best matches against him. I’m hoping I can play as well as I did there. But I’m sure that he’s going to try to do something different,” he added.

Murray also hopes to give Djokovic a tough time on court.

“I feel like this year I have pushed him close and beaten him once,” said Murray. “But I also had, I think, two of the matches in Indian Wells and the last one in Shanghai, from my side weren’t good. But apart from those ones, I have been close. So it’s up to me to learn from the ones like the ones in Shanghai to make sure they aren’t as lopsided as that.”