Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic will fight it out in the Australian Open 2016 Men's Final on Sunday at Melbourne Park, and Murray will be hoping to finally get the better of Djokovic in this competition having lost to him on three previous occasions in the final. Today's game has a scheduled start time of 8.30 a.m. GMT (3.30 a.m. ET) and can be watched online through live stream via the link below.
World No. 1 Djokovic will be the overwhelming favorite to win here today, having defeated Andy Murray in the Australian Open final in 2011, 2013 and 2015.
Murray, ranked World No. 2, will be desperate to claim his third Grand Slam today though, having lost four times in the final of this elusive Grand Slam tournament; three to Djokovic as well as once to Roger Federer in 2010. If he wins today he will become the first man to ever lose four finals at the same Grand Slam before going on to claim the title.
But to overcome Djokovic, Murray will have to be at his absolute best, as his opponent comes into the final in electrifying form, losing only three sets in his six matches to get through to the final.
He also defeated Roger Federer in four sets in Thursday's semi-final, taking the match 6-1 6-2 3-6 6-3.
Arguably his more difficult game in this tournament to date was against France's Gilles Simon in the fourth round, which went all the way to five sets. However, even though Djokovic was well off his best in that game, piling on 100 unforced errors, he still managed to come out on top and progress. The level of Djokovic's performances over recent seasons have been so consistently high that is is extremely unlikely that he will have another such off-day in the final today.
Djokovic will be hungry for an 11th Grand Slam title today, as if he can win again against Murray he will equal Roy Emerson's record of winning six Australian Open titles.
History between the pair also favors Djokovic, as he has defeated Murray 21 times in their 30 encounters; on hard court Djokovic is ahead in their all-time record 18-7, on clay 3-0, with Murray only on top on grass where the Brit leads 2-0 in their matches.
Djokovic has said prior to the game: "These are the kind of matches that you work for. These are the kind of occasions that define you as a tennis player."
Murray was asked ahead of the game whether all-out attack would be the best strategy to overcome Djokovic. He answered, "Roger tried to do that the other day and it's not that easy, whereas (Gilles) Simon played a completely different way and was very successful for a large part of that match. If you want to win against Novak you have to maintain your intensity for a long time and your level for a very long time."
Today's Australian Open 2016 Men's Final between Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray has a scheduled start time of 3.30 a.m. ET (8.30 a.m. GMT) and can be watched online through live stream by clicking here.
