Andy Murray with fans after a Court 15 practice session on the eve of the Wimbledon men's singles final. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty ImagesWhether or not Andy Murray can break through the next level of shackles the nation has wrapped around his psyche – the 77-year wait for a Wimbledon men's champion – his final against Novak Djokovic on Sunday will almost certainly be an ordeal. We will love it. The winner will too. For the loser, the pain will be considerable, to heart and body.
The odds are overwhelmingly that this final will be similar to each of their past three battles for a grand slam title. In all four of their big clashes – the first was a relative blitz in three sets in Melbourne two years ago – they have spent nearly a thousand minutes across the net from each other, but the others, again for the Australian title in 2012 and this year, as well as the US Open last September, were the most brutal examinations of their commitment to the demands of the modern game.
Tennis did not used to be like this. It was always tough, often pretty, but never demanded that the combatants give so much to the cause. There were limits. No longer.
Djokovic's semi-final win in five sets over Juan MartÃn del Potro on Friday was the most graphic demonstration of that verity. It was not only the longest semi-final in the history of the tournament, it was one of the best. The level of tennis hit such a consistency of excellence that Boris Becker – previous owner of the longevity record with Andy Murray's coach Ivan Lendl – was moved to remark, "Can it get any better than this?"
The answer is: probably. It is astonishing what the best players in the world have given us in recent years, finals of such draining intensity it is tiring just watching them and there seems to be no avoiding these climaxes of quite terrible beauty.
But it is what they sign up for from a young age. Murray and Djokovic first played each other at a youth tournament in France when they were 11 years of age. Murray won. Djokovic said on Saturday (as he has said before) what he remembers most about Murray then is his curly hair. He has put considerably more relevant information into his Andy Murray file since then, as has the Scot.
As with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, they have established such a long-running rivalry that there is little about each other's game they do not know. They no doubt recognise tics and twitches, like two gunslingers eyeing up each other and squinting for the merest advantage in time and anticipation.
As ever, especially on grass, those reaction times against big serves will determine the early tone and the result of their 19th contest. And the prize is the same. Djokovic says he had dreamt of winning Wimbledon since he was a small boy. Murray, also, has had that dream – with the attendant nightmare of a nation's expectations. He has tried hard to ignore that burden but it is difficult to believe it is not lurking in a small part of his brain.
"Any tennis player, that is the goal that you have," he said on Saturday after his final workout on Court 15, the place he has been going to for each of his eight campaigns here. "You want to try to win Wimbledon and the closer you get to it the more you are obviously going to think about it. But the most important thing is that you aren't looking [too far] ahead.
"At no stage of the match can you get too ahead of yourself. Against most players that is dangerous, against someone like Novak that is even more dangerous, because he is extremely fit and doesn't give anything away. I am going to need to earn every point."
Even the language that Murray uses is that of suffering: the "need to earn", the obligation to live up to the demands of his sport, to put it on the line. Nothing will come easy for either of them on Sunday afternoon.
As for the expectation of others, they will not go away. Can Djokovic win his second Wimbledon, or will Murray win his first? Will this be another defining match in the game's new rivalry? These are the questions people will be thinking, even if for the participants such considerations are secondary to the job in hand. That is how professionals talk and prepare.
They cannot afford to be distracted by history or statistics. So here are some numbers for them to ignore: 1,600,000 for a start, the prize in sterling for the champion, twice as much as for the loser, which is the way it should be – and all part of a quite staggering increase in overall prize money of 49%.
There a few other digits that matter: the No1 ranking will stay with Djokovic, whatever the result, and Murray will stay at No2. The last time the world's two best players were in this final was two years ago, when Djokovic beat Nadal – and how unceremoniously did the Spaniard leave us this time, bombed out on the first day, followed quickly by Federer. Times are shifting rapidly.
So what of their form here? Djokovic, it has to be said, has looked slightly stronger overall. Murray has had more anxious moments but they have both found a way through. When they dragged themselves away to their respective ice baths on Friday, Murray had racked up 14 hours and 51 minutes of court time, Djokovic 25 minutes fewer. That's only about an hour longer than they spent beating each other up in their last three grand slam finals.
But will their only grasscourt match – Murray's win at Wimbledon in the semi-finals of the London Olympics a year ago – be an X factor in the equation, a key to the result?
"I don't know how many times I have played him," Murray said, "about 12 times? [18, with the Serb up 11-7] and we have played so many points, so many close sets, so many long rallies. I don't know whether it is a match, or a few points or just years of information gathered against each other, I don't know exactly what it will be that makes the difference.
"But, having played against him and won against him on grass will help me. I know what worked against him at the Olympics and hopefully some of those things will work again."
So, alongside struggle there is hope. We had better prepare for another mighty collision of wills.
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