Tomorrow night will see the world's two best male tennis players go head to head in the final of the US Open for the third time in four years.
Serbia's Novak Djokovic will take on Spain's Rafael Nadal in New York just like I predicted two weeks ago here: (http://www.ewansworldofsport.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/can-andy-murray-retain-his-us-open-crown.html) and it promises to be a sensational encounter once again. As you will see from the above blog, I tipped Djokovic to win the title two weeks ago and despite some doubts I'm going to stand by that statement.
There can be no doubting Rafael Nadal is in the better form and has had the easier route to the final. He is unbeaten on hard courts this season winning three Masters Titles in Indian Wells in March and Montreal and Cincinnati last month.
Those latter two victories were all the more remarkable considering how many people had written him off (including to some extent me) after his defeat in the first round of Wimbledon to unheralded Belgian Steve Darcis.
Nadal has looked firmly back to his best on the courts of Flushing Meadows and has only dropped one set on his way to his third US Open final. In the quarter finals he thumped countryman Tommy Robredo (who had beaten Roger Federer in the previous round) for the loss of only four games before defeating Richard Gasquet with ease in last night's semi-final.
By contrast, Novak Djokovic was pushed to the limit yesterday by Andy Murray's conqueror Stanislas Wawrinka in his semi-final. After over four hours of play, Djokovic finally emerged the winner, 6-4 in the fifth set. You have to wonder how much that has taken out of the world number one, even if he has proved time and again he is a machine.
However, I think being tested like that is an advantage for Djokovic. Andy Murray can bare testament to this when he won Wimbledon in the summer. He may have put himself and millions of fans through the ringer in his quarter final against Fernando Verdasco when he had to come from two sets down to win, but this served him enormously in the long run.
And that's what Djokovic will be telling himself. He was far from his best yesterday and probably deserved to lose against Wawrinka, but he dug deep and is now in the final. He'll be brimming with confidence and keen to cement his position as World Number One over a rampant Nadal.
Another advantage Djokovic has in my eyes is his incredible level of consistency in Grand Slams. This is his third slam final of this year alone and fourth consecutive US Open final. Contrast that to Nadal, who thanks to injuries hasn't been to a slam final outwith his beloved French Open since that epic 2012 Australian Open final against Djokovic. That gives the Serbian the mental edge in my view, despite Nadal's 13 slam titles.
Furthermore, Djokovic will be spurred on by a couple of revenge factors. First of all, he'll want to regain the US Open crown he lost last year to Andy Murray in such dramatic fashion. He's loved the US Open since he arrived on the tennis world and this tournament was the first slam in which Djokovic reached the final of in 2007.
He'll also want to avenge another dramatic defeat from the last 12 months and this time it occurred against Nadal in the semi-finals of this years French Open. In five gruelling sets, it was the Spaniard who won 9-7 in the decider after Djokovic had been a break-up. That was a sore one for Djokovic who was keen to complete a career Grand Slam at Roland Garros in June.
And what about Nadal's knees? He might look fitter and sharper than ever, but as pointed out earlier, they haven't been giving a true test yet this fortnight in the Big Apple. Tests don't come much tougher than a best of five-set match against Djokovic and he'll be looking to put the Majorican under serious pressure from the word go. If it goes to another five hour match between the pair, then I've got to fancy Djokovic's chances.
I could easily have stated a case for Nadal winning tomorrow evening, but I fancy the World Number one from Serbia to win his seventh Grand Slam title and edge out Nadal in a five-set thriller.
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