Men's French Open Betting: Djokovic to continue winning streak over Nadal

Sean is hoping for more of this from Djokovic on Sunday

The top two players in the men's game go head-to-head for the 42nd time on Sunday, as Rafa Nadal and Novak Djokovic contest the 2014 French Open men's singles final and Sean Calvert is sticking with his pre-tournament pick...

Andy Murray's tepid showing in the semi final against Rafael Nadal put paid to both of my interests in that clash on Friday and we now have part 42 of Nadal vs Novak Djokovic to evaluate on Sunday.

I said that Andy could start strongly and he did - but sadly the high water mark of Murray's efforts against Rafa was the very first point of the match - and after that the accumulated fatigue from two five set encounters on the red dirt kicked in the Brit had next to nothing in the tank with which to compete.

For his part Rafa played the best tennis I've seen from him lately and quite possibly all year, but conditions were firmly in his favour on Friday and he faced a bedraggled opponent with one eye on the grass swing.

The weather forecast is extremely important for Sunday, with Nadal playing far better in the sun because of the added fizz he gets on his heavily top spun ground strokes, but it's set to be stormy with rain likely on both Saturday night and Sunday morning.

That is one factor in favour of Djokovic, with Rafa certainly a lesser opponent on damp clay than with the sun on his back, so if you believe the weather forecast Novak has an edge there.

Where he may not have an edge is in physical condition after appearing very much below par in the latter stages of his semi final with Ernests Gulbis and plenty of journalists at his delayed press conference got the impression that the Serb wasn't in the best of health.

The unusually sweltering conditions in Paris that day certainly seemed to drain the world number two, but he will have had two days off to recover and that should be enough for an elite athlete like Djokovic.

That said, Novak is sure to try and keep the points as short as possible, and in the Rome meeting between these two a few weeks ago the Serb scored heavily in the shorter rallies and that match was played at night in conditions that also didn't suit the Spaniard.

I'm quite surprised that the favourites have flip-flopped in this one and I still think the same as I did at the start of the tournament - and that is that this match is on Novak's racquet if he plays his best tennis.

The Serb's game has pretty much been tailored to beat Rafa and that's exactly what he's done in their last four meetings and he came very close to the win in their semi final here 12 months ago too.

I seem to remember Djokovic being a shot away from a 5-3 lead in the fifth set that day, but he lost the point after colliding with the net and Rafa may not be so fortunate this time.

Djokovic is desperate to complete the career slam here and he may not have such a good chance to do that again than now, with Rafa not possessing the kind of unshakeable confidence this year that we usually see from him.

That is due to the amount of losses he's had in 2014, while usually he comes into this tournament having swept the board near enough on clay and he can't be confident of beating this opponent having been beaten by him each time since New York last year.

I'm going to stick my pre-tournament pick of Djokovic and those not already on can take the generous-looking 2.166/5 about the Serb in a match that the market looks to have the wrong favourite in to me.

Recommended Bet
Back Djokovic to beat Nadal at 2.166/5