TENNIS/US OPEN:AT THE risk of sounding like a cheap shrink, there are good reasons to believe that Andy Murray is not the happiest man on Planet Tennis this morning. Defeat in the third round of the US Open at the expert hands of Stanislas Wawrinka, the second best Swiss in tennis, has left him sore, sorry and bewildered.
He flew home from New York last night spiritually and physically shredded, confused as to why the well-muscled legs that normally carry him to every last inch of a tennis court as if he were some sort of human jet had let him down when it mattered most. He called it “pins and needles” but the blade went deeper than that. He was cut to the heart.
What worried Murray most was that all the hard work he puts in – probably more than anyone on the circuit – and the precise pre-tournament planning he had constructed with his mother, Judy, and part-time coach, Alex Corretja, had not inured him to the A-game of an opponent he had beaten five times in eight matches. The most recent of those was last year at Wimbledon over five sets and, before that, he won in straight sets at this tournament en route to his first grand slam final in 2008.
Yesterday, it all went wrong in just under four befuddled hours.
Wawrinka, for one, was surprised by Murray’s lethargy in the later stages of the match. He reckoned Murray had a “little bit of an injury”, which is why he chipped and lobbed to such good effect.
Significantly, Wawrinka shrugged off his own more obvious problem, a seized-up right quad in the third set, giving Murray the illusion of a way back. There was no comeback, not that the Scot did not fight but, as John McEnroe observed, the struggle was internal. Murray later agreed.
And that is where Murray’s search for solutions resides. There is not much wrong with the essential mechanics of his game, yet a player who could serve in his sleep foot-faulted four times, something seasoned observers could not remember him doing – ever. The machine clunked badly, and Murray could not work out why.
There will be accusations of choking, an absurdity. The man does not have a give-up gene in his body. The fact he has lost in big matches is an obsession with all but the man himself; every player loses. The difference here is he lost to someone he should have beaten, especially given his recent form, and he has been robbed of the opportunity of going very deep into the tournament.
It is long forgotten that Roger Federer, who denied him here and in Melbourne, the player generally and rightly regarded as the best the game has ever had, did not win his first major until his 17th slam. This was Murray’s 20th and he is still only 23. To be judged alongside legends is tough. Murray will win a major one day because he is too good not to.
Yet, even by his own downbeat standards, he left town like someone who had been ejected from his own party with a half-empty bottle of champagne and no cab number. Last year was similar, but it emerged later he had injured a wrist in losing to Marin Cilic. It was as if he did not want to use even that legitimate excuse for his defeat, and we might yet discover he was suffering some unseen physical ailment this time.
That, in fact, would be his perfect solution. It would mean it was not his tennis that let him down but his body. His body he can fix. His tennis, he will reckon, should not need attending to because he has worked it into a pleasing groove since he was a small boy.
He did go on the attack more against Wawrinka than he had done in earlier matches but the strategy brought him mixed results. If he was injured, it would explain why he tried to cut the points short, but that does not totally add up. Wawrinka was hurting more, yet moved more with greater ease, even at the end, when he pulled out a couple of remarkable winners, leaving Murray stranded at the net.
Beijing and Shanghai are next up, by which time the “little niggles” Murray complained about will have cleared, no doubt. Then it is the homeward loop to London via Paris to round off a year of hugely contrasting form and mood.
It is unlikely he will have picked up a new coach by then, but you never know with Murray. After the match, he was as near to inconsolable as he gets. He was polite but kept it short. Being quizzed about losing was not what he’d had in mind earlier in the day.
Gael Monfils became the first man to reach the quarter-finals, defeating fellow Frenchman Richard Gasquet in straight sets yesterday. The 17th-seeded Monfils served 14 aces and won 6-4, 7-5, 7- 5. Former women’s champion Svetlana Kuznetsova was ousted by unseeded Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia.
MEN’S SINGLES
Third round: (1) Rafael Nadal (Spn) bt Gilles Simon (Fra) 6-4 6-4 6-2, (23) Feliciano Lopez (Spn) bt Sergiy Stakhovsky (Ukr) 6-3 4-0 ret, (10) David Ferrer (Spn) bt Daniel Gimeno-Traver (Spn) 7-6 (7-2) 6-2 6-2, (8) Fernando Verdasco (Spn) bt (31) David Nalbandian (Arg) 6-2 3-6 6-3 6-2, (25) Stanislas Wawrinka (Swi) bt (4) Andy Murray (Bri) 6-7 (3-7) 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 6-3, (20) Sam Querrey (USA) bt (14) Nicolas Almagro (Spn) 6-3 6-4 6-4, (12) Mikhail Youzhny (Rus) bt (18) John Isner (USA) 6-4 6-7 (7-9) 7-6 (7-5) 6-4, Tommy Robredo (Spn) bt Michael Llodra (Fra) 3-6 7-6 (8-6) 6-4 2-1.
Fourth round: (17) Gael Monfils (Fra) bt Richard Gasquet (Fra) 6-4 7-5 7-5, (3) Novak Djokovic (Ser) bt (19) Mardy Fish (USA) 6-3 6-4 6-1
WOMEN’S SINGLES
Fourth round: (6) Francesca Schiavone (Ita) bt (20) Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (Rus) 6-3 6-0, (3) Venus Williams (USA) bt (16) Shahar Peer (Isr) 7-6 (7-3) 6-3, (5) Samantha Stosur (Aus) bt (12) Elena Dementieva (Rus) 6-3 2-6 7-6 (7-2), (2) Kim Clijsters (Bel) bt Ana Ivanovic (Ser) 6-2 6-1, Dominika Cibulkova (Svk) bt (11) Svetlana Kuznetsova (Rus) 7-5 7-6 (7-4), (31) Kaia Kanepi (Est) bt (15) Yanina Wickmayer (Bel) 0-6 7-6 (7-2) 6-1.
