I’VE TURNED IT AROUND, SAYS ANDY
Resurgent Scot defies his critics
DOUBTING Andy Murray was always likely to trigger something positive within him, and the beneficial effects appear to have been bestowed in the middle of the French Open.
Proving detractors wrong is a powerful fuel for the 30-year-old Scot, who today embarks on yet another second week at a Grand Slam event.
In the wake of his straight-sets win over Juan Martin del Potro on Saturday, something stood out in his assessment.
‘I’m very pleased and happy for myself, because a lot of people wouldn’t have thought that I would maybe get to this stage or be playing the way that I did today,’ he said. ‘So I’m happy I’ve managed to turn it around.’
Good things are always likely to happen when Murray strikes a note of defiance, something that has largely been missing from his season so far.
His reward for subduing Del Potro so impressively is a fourthround meeting today against Karen Khachanov, who is much more of a bruiser than his forename might suggest. The 6ft 6in Russian yesterday spared everyone the torturous spectacle of another Murray versus John Isner match when he took down the 6ft 10in American servebot 7-6, 6-3, 6-7, 7-6.
Khachanov, 21, is an outstanding prospect, but an opponent you would think Murray would be happy to take at this stage of a Slam. Murray ought to make it to the last eight and confound those of us who thought he might be warming up his grass court game by now.
‘Things can change very quickly, you don’t become a bad tennis player overnight,’ said Murray. ‘It can only take one or two good practices, provided you’re trying to do the right things.
‘I knew I could turn it round. It wasn’t going to be easy but I feel like I’ve done a good job.
‘The further you go, the better you start to feel, the more confidence you get and you are in the second week of a Slam, so anything is possible. Why not set the bar as high as possible?
‘It’s better to say, “OK, I want to try and win the tournament” and fall short and lose in the final than say, “I’m delighted getting to the second week” and then lose in the fourth round. There is no reason I can’t win a few more matches.’
This bullish tone coincided with a calmer on-court demeanour — by his standards — against the Argentinian. ‘I felt like when I was getting frustrated, I stopped myself fairly quickly and got back to playing the right way. I turned it around quickly and you deserve credit for doing that.
‘I know my head right now is in the right place because I am working things out on the court, and that’s what I care about.’
While the urge to prove people wrong should not be underestimated in Murray’s apparent emergence from his pre-Paris slump, nor should the change to the best of five sets.
For someone like him, who operates a kind of SatNav in his head to find a route to victory over any opponent, the longer format affords him more time work out and break down an opponent.
Against the talented Khachanov, whose hulking build brings to mind his childhood hero Marat Safin, Murray will benefit from previous sparring sessions.
‘I have never played against him, but I practised with him before he got on to the tour when he was ranked about 350 and he was really good,’ Murray said. ‘He’s big, strong guy. Generates a lot of power. He’s also got a big serve, but he’s obviously not quite as experienced as John Isner.’
Given the deficit of Grand Slam nous — Khachanov has never been this far before — you would expect Murray to make it through to face either Kei Nishikori or Fernando Verdasco in the quarter-finals.
After that may lurk the perennially under-rated Stan Wawrinka, although there have still been enough wrinkles in the Murray game for it to be premature to look as far ahead as Friday.