Deja vu as Murray toils in the capital
FOuR months, fourteen miles and a change of surface separate Wimbledon from this week’s proceedings at the O2 Arena but not much seemed to have altered yesterday for Andy Murray.
Having played a strangely lacklustre match on his last appearance in London — the quarter-final defeat to Grigor Dimitrov at SW19 — he lobbed in a similarly curious performance to open the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.
Except this one was even worse. Whereas the Bulgarian had excelled on that summer afternoon, Kei Nishikori did not even have to produce his best to win 6-4, 6-4 yesterday and jeopardise Murray’s hopes for this week.
Now he will surely have to win his last two group matches, starting tomorrow against Canada’s Milos Raonic who let slip a set point before going down 6-1, 7-6 to Roger Federer in the second Group B match.
Before subsiding 7-0 in the tiebreak the big- serving Raonic caused the Swiss master sufficient problems to reinforce how dangerous he can be.
Like Nishikori, he was making his debut at this tournatournament and was nervous vous at the start. unlike the Japanese player, he was up against an n opponent in Federer who was ruthlessly sharp enough to take advantage from the off — unlike Murray, who wass reluctant to take the e initiative.
Both opening matches tches drew in excess off 1717,000000 spectators and those who packed the venue to its dimlylit rafters for the first session were to be reminded of an eternal truth about the 27-year-old Scot: for all his career achievements you are still never quite sure what you are going to get with him.
Not much, it turned out. He was desperately vulnerable on his serve and stuck so far back behind the baseline in the rallies there was a danger of him incurring a fee for parking.
Surprisingly sanguine afterwards, he dismissed the notion that the left calf muscle he had treated might have been a factor. ‘I felt okay on the court, I don’t tthink thatta was the reason I lost thet match,’ said MurMurray. ‘If this was ananywhere else, I would be out of the tournament. I’m ddefinitely going to have to play better if I am going to gget through.’ All his supporteers can hope for nonow is that, with his bacback to the wall, he shows the same resolve that drodrove him to play six consecutive weeks in Asia and Europe to qualify for this eightman field in the first place.
You suspect he instinctively prefers to be in that situation anyway as he has never been a great front runner — which is what he might have considered himself to be against new-boy Nishikori. Murray’s demeanour was certainly flat — despite the fact that he was given a rousing enough welcome — and his second serve took particular punishment.
He denied suggestions yesterday from Greg Rusedski that he has made deliberate if subtle changes to his action since back surgery.
‘I wouldn’t have intentionally changed serve because I wasn’t getting any problems with my back from my service action,’ said Murray. ‘At the end of the year I will look at video from before and now to see if things have evolved.’
He is bound to be aware of minor changes in his ball toss and it is something he will have to review with head coach Amelie Mauresmo. She also has to fathom out a complex temperament that leaves Murray so prone to let downs.
In his previous match, against Novak Djokovic in Paris ten days ago, he competed well before mentally tuning out and collapsing in the last five games.
There was no sign yesterday of the resourcefulness or fight that carried him to three ATP titles in six weeks. Also absent was any of the all-court attacking intent she would like to instil in him.
Nishikori was there for the taking early on and could not a land a first serve. He pretty much gifted Murray a break to fall 3-2 behind but then had the donation reciprocated straightaway before the first set was dismally conceded by Murray.
A brief glimpse of attacking purpose was given when Murray got back from 1-4 to 4-4 in the second, but he was broken again to lose the match with a backhand that went almost embarrassingly long. A curious performance indeed.
Further down the scale, British number two James Ward narrowly missed out on entering the world’s top 100 for the first time when he lost 6-4, 6-1 to Australian John Millman in final of the ATP Challenger in Melbourne.
The 27-year- old Londoner, who has now ended his season, is likely to go up to around 102 in the new rankings and already should be assured of a direct entry into January’s Australian Open.