The 2016 French Open Men's singles final was the championship

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

match of the Men's Singles tournament at the

2016 French Open The 2016 French Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor clay courts. It was the 120th edition of the French Open and the second Grand Slam event of the year. It took place at the Stade Roland Garros from 22 May to 5 June and consisted of ...

. A significant part of the Djokovic–Murray rivalry, it pitted the world's top two players,

Novak Djokovic Novak Djokovic ( sr-Cyrl, Новак Ђоковић, translit=Novak Đoković, ; born 22 May 1987) is a Serbian professional tennis player. He has been ranked world No. 1 for a record total 373 weeks, and has finished as the year-end No. 1 ...

and

Andy Murray Sir Andrew Barron Murray (born 15 May 1987) is a British professional tennis player from Scotland. He was ranked world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 41 weeks, and finished as the year-end No. 1 in 2016. Murray h ...

, against each other in a Grand Slam final for the seventh time. After three hours and three minutes, World No. 1 Djokovic defeated second seed Murray 3–6, 6–1, 6–2, 6–4 to win the match. By winning the 2016 French Open, Djokovic not only completed a career Grand Slam, he also became the first man since

Rod Laver Rodney George Laver (born 9 August 1938) is an Australian former tennis player. Laver was the world number 1 ranked professional in some sources in 1964, in all sources from 1965 to 1969 and in some sources in 1970, spanning four years befor ...

in 1969 to hold all four Major titles simultaneously, while he also became the first man since

Jim Courier James Spencer "Jim" Courier (born August 17, 1970) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. He won four major singles titles, two at the French Open and two at the Australian Open. He was the youngest man to reach the singles finals ...

in 1992 to win the

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Au ...

and French Open titles in the same calendar year. As of July 2023, it is the last

Grand Slam Grand Slam most often refers to: * Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to: Games and sports * Grand slam, winning category te ...

final contested between Murray and Djokovic.

Background

The match took place on the final day of the 2016 edition of the 15-day French Open, held every May and June. In the lead-up to the French Open, Djokovic and Murray contested the finals at both the

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

and

Rome Masters The Italian Open ( it, Internazionali d'Italia; literally: ''Italy's Internationals''), originally called the Italian International Championships, is a tennis tournament held in Rome, Italy. It is one of the most important clay tennis tournament ...

in May; these were the first two times that the pair contested a final on clay. Both dethroned each other as the defending champion, with Djokovic defeating Murray in Madrid by way of a three-set win and Murray reversing the result in Rome with a straight-sets victory. Djokovic entered the French Open as the favourite for the tournament, and after winning each of his first three matches in straight sets, his title chances multiplied when nine-times champion

Rafael Nadal Rafael Nadal Parera (, ; born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He is currently ranked world No. 2 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). He has been ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis ...

withdrew mid-tournament due to a wrist injury. En route to the final, he dropped just one set, the first one in his fourth-round match against

Roberto Bautista-Agut Roberto Bautista Agut (; born 14 April 1988) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 9 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) in singles, which he first achieved on 4 November 2019. Bautista ...

. Murray, on the other hand, endured consecutive five-set matches against

Radek Štěpánek Radek Štěpánek (; born 27 November 1978) is a Czech former professional tennis player. His career-high singles ranking was world No. 8 and best doubles ranking was world No. 4. Štěpánek's biggest achievements are reaching two Masters 1000 ...

and

Mathias Bourgue Mathias Bourgue (; born 18 January 1994) is a French tennis player playing on the ATP Challenger Tour. He has a career-high ATP singles ranking of No. 140 achieved on 24 April 2017. Career He received a wildcard to advance to the singles main dra ...

in his first two matches; in the former, he was two-sets-to-love down and was two points away from what would've been his earliest defeat at the French Open since 2006 before he rallied to win in five sets. He proceeded to win his next two matches in straight sets, before defeating

Richard Gasquet Richard Gabriel Cyr Gasquet (; born 18 June 1986) is a French professional tennis player. His career-high ATP singles ranking is world No. 7, attained on 9 July 2007. He has won a total of 15 singles titles on the ATP Tour. His best performances ...

and defending champion

Stan Wawrinka Stanislas "Stan" Wawrinka (; born 28 March 1985) is a Swiss professional tennis player. He reached a career-high Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) singles ranking of world No. 3 for the first time on 27 January 2014. His career highlight ...

in the quarter and semi-finals respectively to reach his first French Open final. His win over Wawrinka was regarded as "his best ever performance on clay".

Match

Andy Murray won the pre-match coin toss and elected to serve first. He was broken to love in the opening game of the match, but he would break straight back and would hold the remainder of his service games to take the opening set 6–3. At that point, history seemed to favour Murray, who had never previously lost a match at Roland Garros after winning the opening set, while he had also not lost a match after winning the opening set in 49 consecutive Grand Slam matches dating back to Wimbledon in 2013. However, Djokovic would hit back in the second set, taking the second and third sets for the loss of just three games to take a two-sets-to-one lead. In the fourth, Djokovic broke twice to hold a 5–2 lead, but would double-fault on break point down to surrender one of those breaks, reducing the margin to 5–3. After Murray held once more, Djokovic converted his third match point to win the match in four sets and finally break his French Open curse.

Officials

The chair umpire throughout the match was Damien Dumusois.

Statistics

Source
/sub>

Murray and Djokovic about the match

Following the match, Djokovic thanked his coaching staff and family for their support: He also extended his praise to Murray: Murray conceded that Djokovic was the better player on the day, and that he didn't play as well as he did.

Reaction

Djokovic's French Open victory was met with a positive reaction around the tennis community, with rival players including

Juan Martín del Potro Juan Martín del Potro () (born 23 September 1988) is an Argentine inactive professional tennis player. Del Potro's biggest achievement is a major title: the 2009 US Open, where he defeated Rafael Nadal in the semifinals and the five-time defen ...

Milos Raonic Milos Raonic (; sr, Милош Раонић, Miloš Raonić, ; born December 27, 1990) is a Canadian inactive professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 3 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), wh ...

and

Marin Čilić Marin Čilić (; born 28 September 1988) is a Croatian professional tennis player. Čilić has won 20 ATP Tour singles titles, including a major at the 2014 US Open. He was also runner-up at the 2017 Wimbledon Championships and the 2018 Austral ...

among those paying tribute and offering their congratulations towards Djokovic.

Pat Cash Patrick Hart Cash (born 27 May 1965) is an Australian former professional tennis player. He reached a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 4 in May 1988 and a career-high ATP doubles ranking of world No. 6 in August 1988. Upon winning ...

analysed the match and said on the BBC Sport website:

References

External links

Match details
at the official ATP site
Player head-to-head
at the official ATP site

Extended highlights on YouTube {{DEFAULTSORT:French Open - Men's singles final,2016 2016 French Open, Men's singles final

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...