Sunday’s 2021 French Open men’s final will emphasize the older and new generations in men’s tennis. 34-year-old Novak Djokovic and member of this game’s’Big Three’ will take on 22-year-old Stefanos Tsitsipas and among the widely-touted’Next Gen’ players, who will be playing in his first career Grand Slam final. The pair faced each other at last year’s French Open semifinal at which Djokovic edged a five-set victory.
Djokovic stopped Rafael Nadal’s bid to get a 14th French Open title when he won an epic, four-hour long semifinal on Friday. It was only Nadal’s third reduction in 108 career games in the clay-court championship he’s dominated his entire career. Djokovic lost to Nadal in straight places, in last year’s French Open final.
Tsitsipas defeated sixth seed Alexander Zverev in five places in his Friday semifinal game, to become the first Greek player in history to reach a Grand slam final. Tsitsipas is already the youngest player to have defeated all three players in the Big Three.
If Djokovic would be to beat Tsitsipas, it would be his 19th victory in 29 Grand Slam final appearances, and it would give him to possible chance to overtake both Federer and Nadal this year, with Wimbledon and the US Open nevertheless left on the year’s calendar. Not only that, but Djokovic could join Rod Laver and Roy Emerson since the only men in tennis history to win all the four major tournaments at least twice, something neither of the Big Three rivals have done.
The closing takes place on Sunday at 9:00 p.m. ET at Philippe-Chatrier Court at Paris. CBS Sports has you covered with all the live highlights, updates and more out of this game in the feed below.
