Djokovic and Nadal in a potential Roland Garros classic

Will things be different this year?

It is the final that most people wanted and most people expected, Alex Johnson previews the Djokovic-Nadal Final.

Novak Djokovic has been in imperious form throughout the French Open and will need to be at his best against Rafael Nadal on his favourite surface.

The "King of Clay" has won the title in Paris for eight of the past nine years and has only ever been defeated at the tournament once, by Robin Soderling in 2009. However, Djokovic will be encouraged by the indifferent form Nadal had displayed before the tournament began. 

The Spaniard has, in recent years, ruled not just at the French Open but at all the clay-court events that precede it. However, he failed to reach the final at Monte Carlo and Barcelona, losing in the quarter-final on both occasions and although he won at the Madrid Open, his opponent Kei Nishikori had been a set and a break up on the world number one before he was ultimately forced to retire in the deciding set.

Nadal and Djokovic last met in the final of the Italian Open in Rome, the tournament immediately before Paris and, on clay, it was the Serb who came out on top. He won 4-6 6-3 6-3 in a match that took two hours and 19 minutes and meant that Djokovic has now won four matches in a row against the world number one. 

The statistics in Rome showed that while they made a similar number of unforced errors, Nadal made only 15 winners compared to Djokovic's 46. The Serb was also much stronger on his serve, winning 71% of points on his first serve compared to Nadal's 54%.

The loss for Nadal also meant this is the first season in which he has lost more than two matches on clay and his supremacy on the surface is coming under closer examination than ever before. 

However, his road to his ninth French Open final has seen him in excellent form once again. He secured straight-sets victories against Robby Ginepri, Dominic Thiem, Florian Mayer and Dusan Lajovic before coming up against David Ferrer in the quarter-finals, a repeat of last year's final. 

The result was the same, a win for Nadal, although, unlike in 2013, Ferrer did win a set. However, in the semi-final against Andy Murray, the Spaniard showed exactly why he should never be written off; producing a perfect three sets of clay-court tennis to which Murray had no answer. 

Novak Djokovic had a potentially more difficult route to the final, beating Joao Sousa and Jeremy Hardy before facing Marin Cilic in a tough-looking third round draw. Djokovic came through in four sets and then beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the fourth, going through for the loss of only five games. 

A straight-sets victory over Milos Raonic in the quarter-finals led to a semi-final against Ernests Gulbis, conqueror of Roger Federer earlier in the tournament. Djokovic won the first two sets relatively comfortably and though Gulbis gave himself a glimmer of hope by winning the third, the Serb came back to win the next and secure his second French Open final.

Both Nadal and Djokovic have shown on their route to the final why they are justifiably ranked first and second in the world and Sunday's final could be a classic between a man aiming for his ninth French Open title and his opponent, still seeking his first.

Having beaten Djokovic in four sets in the 2012 final, Nadal was given a much sterner test in the semis by the Serb, eventually winning the fifth and final set 9-7, and fans will be hoping for an equally epic confrontation.