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LONDON -- Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray are building their own Grand Slam rivalry, one that perhaps someday will merit mention alongside Roger Federer vs. Rafael Nadal, or Djokovic vs. Nadal. When the No. 1-ranked Djokovic faces No. 2 Murray to determine Wimbledons champion Sunday, it will be their fourth meeting in a major final -- and third in less than a year. Djokovic beat Murray at the Australian Open in 2011. Murray beat Djokovic at the U.S. Open last September. Djokovic beat Murray at the Australian Open this January. Thats not yet quite up to the lofty standard set by Federer and Nadal, who played each other in eight Grand Slam title matches from 2006-11. Djokovic and Nadal have contested five major finals since 2010, including a stretch of four in a row. While part of the appeal of the Federer-Nadal matchup lies in their vastly contrasting games -- all the way down to the most basic level, righty vs. lefty -- Djokovic-Murray features two guys who employ rather similar styles. They are improving servers and fantastic returners who managed to silence big hitters in the semifinals Friday: Tough to decide whether it was more surprising that Djokovic had a 22-4 edge in aces during his 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (2), 6-7 (6), 6-3 victory over No. 8 Juan Martin del Potro, or that Murray had a 20-9 edge in aces during his 6-7 (2), 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 victory over No. 24 Jerzy Janowicz. They also are cover-everything hustlers who can switch from defence to offence, quick as can be. "There is some similarities there, in terms of if you look at stats and stuff. I mean, both of us return well. Thats probably the strongest part of our games. Both play predominantly from the baseline," said Murray, who is aiming to become the first British man to win Wimbledon since Fred Perry in 1936. "We both move well, but a different sort of movement," Murray continued. "Hes extremely flexible and he slides into shots, even on the courts here. He slides more. Hes quite a bit lighter than me. So Id say I probably move with more power, and hes much more flexible than me." In the womens final Saturday, 15th-seeded Marion Bartoli of France won her first Grand Slam title, beating 23rd-seeded Sabine Lisicki of Germany 6-1, 6-4. Djokovic, the 2011 Wimbledon champion, is seeking his seventh Grand Slam title overall and will be playing in his 11th major final. Murray is 1-5 in major finals. He has reached the championship matches at each of the last four Grand Slam tournaments he entered; he skipped this years French Open because of a bad back. Murray didnt need to expend too much energy to get past Janowicz, but Djokovics win against del Potro was physically and emotionally sapping. It lasted 4 hours, 43 minutes, a record for a Wimbledon semifinal, and was filled with intense points. "I did play a very long match, but I had situations before where I had to recover even just in 24 hours for the match the next day," Djokovic said Saturday. "I kind of got used to it and I know my body. I have a great team of people around me that make sure that we respect everything that we usually do. Im confident Ill be ready for tomorrow." Del Potros take about how much Djokovic will have left for Sunday: "He will be OK." Djokovic and Murray have put up remarkably close numbers over this fortnight. Djokovic has lost two sets, Murray three. Djokovic has dropped 80 games through six matches, Murray 82. Djokovic has won 95 of 101 service games, Murray 95 of 103. Djokovic has 76 aces and only seven double-faults; Murray has 80 aces and 11 double-faults. Born a week apart in May 1987, Djokovic and Murray first met as junior players. "We know each other since we were 11 years old. On and off the court, we have lots of respect for each other. Always very fair, very honest relationship," Djokovic said. "Now we are big rivals and its difficult. ... So we dont get together and have dinners and parties, but we definitely always chat and remember the fun days we had as juniors." The two men get along well enough that when both were at the semifinal stage of last years U.S. Open, they sat in front of a computer together and watched online while Murrays Scotland and Djokovics Serbia played to a 0-0 draw in a qualifying match for the World Cup. "We have a professional friendship, I think, now. When we were younger, it was more friendly," Murray said. "Weve spent a lot of time discussing various issues within tennis and doing what I think sometimes what was best for the sport. But I dont think it goes more than that right now. I would hope when we finish playing, it will be different," Murray added. "But its just hard, because playing in big, big matches with a lot on the line, you cant be best of friends when thats happening." Djokovic leads the head-to-head series 11-7, including winning their most recent three matches. While this is their first Wimbledon encounter, they did play on the All England Clubs grass in the semifinals of last years London Olympics, and Murray won 7-5, 7-5 on his way to a gold medal. Thats part of year-plus stretch in which Murray has won 17 consecutive matches on grass, and 23 of 24. His victory over Federer in the Olympic final, four weeks after losing to the 17-time major title winner on the same court in the Wimbledon final, gave Murray a real boost of confidence. Theres a tremendous amount of pressure and expectations heaped on Murray every year at this time, because of the considerable wait for a British champion. He knows that, of course. So does Djokovic, who is aware there will not be many people pulling for him in the stands Sunday. "Its normal to expect, in a way, that most of the crowd will be on his side. Hes a local hero," Djokovic said. Murray says he thrives with the backing of 15,000 or so flag-waving, top-of-their-lungs-yelling spectators every time he plays on Centre Court. "Theres that extra bit of pressure that probably Novak doesnt have," said Murrays older brother, Jamie, who won the 2007 mixed doubles title at the All England Club. "If (Andy) deals with that well, then Im sure he can perform in the final. Whether he wins or not I dont know, but theyre two evenly matched guys, and theyve had a lot of great matches in the past. Hopefully Sunday will be another one." Instead of another Federer vs. Nadal, No. 1 vs. No. 2, match on the last Sunday, this time itll be Djokovic and Murray. In as unpredictable a Wimbledon as anyone can recall, Nadal lost in the first round, and Federer exited in the second, both against men ranked outside the top 100. Murray was asked how his mindset might be different in his second Wimbledon final than it was in his first, 12 months ago. "Ill be probably in a better place mentally. I would hope so, just because Ive been there before. I won a Grand Slam. I would hope I would be a little bit calmer going into Sunday," Murray said. "But you dont know. You dont decide that. I might wake up on Sunday and be unbelievably nervous, more nervous than I ever have been before. But I wouldnt expect to be."Swell Traveler Mug . "It doesnt get any better than that," Giambi said. "Im speechless." The Indians are roaring toward October. Giambi belted a two-run, pinch-hit homer with two outs in the ninth inning to give Cleveland a shocking 5-4 win over the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday night, keeping the Indians up with the lead pack in the AL wild-card race. Swell Traveler Norge . Argentina winger Ezequiel Lavezzi and France midfielder Blaise Matuidi scored, with star striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic setting up both despite having a poor game by his high standards. Forward Eduardo gave Ajaccio the lead in the sixth minute after being set up by right winger Benjamin Andre, and the Corsican side looked comfortable in the first half, with the lively Johan Cavalli causing problems with his probing runs from midfield. http://www.swellflaskenorge.com/swell-flaske-marmor.html . "Four now," Carl Gunnarsson told the Leaf Report proudly following a 5-2 victory over New York on Tuesday night, the clubs fifth straight at home. Swell Flaske Tilbud . The 43-year-old closer, in his 19th and final big league season, has said hed like to play the outfield. Yankees manager Joe Girardi says hes thinking about allowing Rivera to do it this weekend, when the Yankees finish their season with a three-game series at the Houston Astros. Swell Flaske Nettbutikk . 10 Texas Rangers jersey for one last time. Young formally announced his retirement Friday after returning to Rangers Ballpark, his baseball home for all but the last of his 13 major league seasons.Joe Root has revealed that it was a few home truths from Mark Ramprakash that helped inspire him to a career-best score in the Old Trafford Test.Describing his two dismissals at Lords as almost the final straw, Root turned to Ramprakash, the England batting coach, for advice. But rather than suggesting technical alterations or reassuring Root as to his quality, Ramprakash questioned whether he was in the frame of mind to be playing Test cricket at present.Root had looked well-set in the first innings of the first Test at Lords. He had added 110 for the second wicket with his captain, Alastair Cook, and moved within two of another half-century. But then he attempted an unnecessarily aggressive slow-sweep and top-edged to mid-wicket. Englands innings fell away and, with Root also succumbing to a loose pull in the second innings, Pakistan went on to win the game.It was far from the first time that Root had played a part in his own dismissal once set at Test level. Indeed, it was the 17th time in almost exactly 24 months that he had been dismissed with a score between 48 and 99 in a Test, in which time he had scored five Test centuries. And it was that failure to capitalise on his starts, that lack of ruthlessness, that persuaded him to seek advice ahead of the second Test in Manchester.It worked. Root produced his most controlled, mature innings to date to help England to a vast first innings total and, eventually, a victory that left the series level at 1-1 with two to play.The most frustrating thing about this Test match summer so far is that the majority of my dismissals have been batsman error, Root said. They have been things that are my own fault rather than good pieces of bowling where I couldnt do much about it.I look back at a number of dismissals and think thats not good enough, Ive got to be doing better than that. It was almost like the final straw at Lords. Id really wound myself up and I knew having been moved up the order, being 1-0 down in the series, I needed to put a really big performance in.I worked really hard in practice and, after the Tests, spoke to Mark Ramprakash about areas I could potentially go further with my game.I asked him: is there anything I could be doing differently or better to offer more to the team. He said it must be your mental approach to things because your game looks in good order, youre playing well in the nets and you look pretty comfortable out there.One thing he said was are you mentally in the right place to play Test cricket at the minute?I didnt even think about that at the time. That sort of hurt me, that someone would say that to me. But it was a good motivator to get me in the right place for Old Trafford.It was actually exactly what I needed to hear. Thats why he is such a good batting coach and why he is getting a lot out of our batters at the moment.Part of the problem, Root believes, was adapting to playing all three formats of the game within a short space of time. While he dismisses any sense that he was tired or jaded, he does admit that adapting to the different tempos of the formats has challenged him and that, at times, he has lost his wicket in Tests to the sort of stroke that might have been more appropriate in the limited-overs formats.The way I was approaching things was still edging towards one-day cricket a bit, Root said. Maybe I was expecting to score at a certain rate or play in a way that didnt really suit the situatiion or the way the opposition were bowling.ddddddddddddIt may have had something to do with switching across three forms. I dont think its a fatigue thing. I was just trying to turn that mental approach from one-day cricket to Test cricket. Previously Ive got that right but on this occasion I dont think I did quite.The fact that Ramps picked up on that and I was able to turn that round in quite a short space of time was really pleasing. It was nice to have push in the right direction, which is probably what you need from the coaching staff.It is not the first time Root has used the pain of defeat to drive him to improve. He was stung by his experiences on the Ashes tour of 2013-14 when England were thrashed 5-0 and Root was, for the only time in his career, dropped from the Test team.But while he admits it was a tough experience at the time, he also feels he benefited from it. He believes it taught him not only which areas of his game he needed to improve, but how to react in adversity. But, most of all, it has given him a hunger to put things right. While England have a lot to think about before the next Ashes tour - not least a tour to India and the Champions Trophy next June - it is only about 15 months away and Root admits both to training with one eye on it and to dreaming of what he believes would be an immense victory.At the time, that tour was difficult for me, he said. More than anything when I look back at that series, it was the amount of things I tried to change when it wasnt going well.I learnt a lot on that trip about my technique, areas I needed to learn but also what were my strengths and the basics of my game.Now, in situations like that, I just try to strip my game down to the bare basics and really rely on what I know works consistently for me. I had the mental strength within myself to know that and not to panic and just keep working hard. So going through that experience really did help me.At no point over the last 12 months have I really felt out of form, and since the start of the summer my game has felt in a really good place even though I wasnt getting the big scores.That was the lesson I learnt from that trip and I suppose it is a big driver for me to keep improving and keep looking to go big when I get the chance.There are a few players in our squad who were on that tour and would like to get back out there and put some really strong performances in. Me and a few of the other guys are doing things now to get us ready for Australia and India and playing on different surfaces so that you dont just turn up and say I need to do this and I need to do that youve already got a base layer in your locker before you get there.I would imagine that winning in Australia is one of the best feelings in Test cricket. It was great watching the guys do it not long ago and the stories and memories from a few of the guys who are still playing now are great to hear about.Hearing it makes you very hungry to go and do it yourself. Weve got a really strong squad of players who can go and do something special over there. It would be immense to be on a winning tour down there having scored a lot of runs.Joe Root was speaking at his first club, Sheffield Collegiate CC, on behalf of Hardys Wine & their Heartbeat of the Club campaign. Find out more @HardysWineUK ' ' '