ANDY SHOWS HIS STEELY SIDE
Scot digs deep to claim slot in last 16
With skulls adorning his kit, a piratical headband and a golden right arm, Fabio Fognini could have spelt doom in the gloom for Andy Murray last night.
Yet that was to reckon without the world No 1’s bloody-minded determination to keep one hand on his Wimbledon title that saw him save five set points and rescue himself from a deciding fifth, to have been played under the roof.
At 8.58pm he finally served out a 6-2, 4-6, 6-1, 7-5 victory to make the sanctuary of the fourth round on Monday. Whatever has gone before in his relatively modest season, Murray’s cussed spirit remains intact.
it was fever pitch on Centre Court as Fognini was given a point penalty for an apparent obscene gesture, hurt his own cause when he mistakenly called a shot out and took a medical time- out on his ankle that seemed to work wonders.
All that — and a mesmeric ability to sit in a rally and then unleash crunching groundstrokes from the shortest of backswings — played with Murray’s head to the point that he was staring at a suddendeath deciding set that ultimately never came.
Murray said: ‘it was a very up and down match. i didn’t feel it was the best tennis at times. tense but i got through it.
‘it’s obviously difficult when you are playing a guy who has all the shots. he generates easy power and it’s difficult to see when he’s going to hit the ball big.
‘it was getting dark towards the end. We would have had to come off and wait around for 20 minutes. i was pleased to get off with the win. i didn’t feel like i moved as well today as in the first matches but i have a couple of days’ break now and can get myself in a good rhythm over the weekend. i’m happy to get through and anything can happen in the second week.’
A calm analysis, if one was possible after such breathless combat, is that being stretched to four sets means Murray is the only one of the so- called ‘Big Four’ to have dropped one in the opening five days, although both Roger Federer and Nadal have been taken to tiebreaks. the quietly impressive dark horse remains Croatia’s Marin Cilic.
Murray found himself up against one of the tour’s more extravagant and irascible shotmakers last night, and now faces another in Benoit Paire, the angular French- man with a dream backhand and a propensity for the dropshot. the first four rounds will have seen Murray face one mildly eccentric player after another.
Fognini is the mercurial italian No 1 who can drift in and out of matches like a dodgy AM radio signal, although he was so tuned in at May’s italian Open that he handed Murray a heavy beating in front of his adoring fans in Rome.
But
that was on clay, his favourite environment on his favourite court, and this was the polar opposite — the defending champion at his Centre Court on grass.
the setting made it unlikely this would be Murray’s first primetime thriller, though that is what it turned into. Murray took the first set with a second break that was giftwrapped with three double faults.
When the Scot wiped out his early break in the second set, Fognini’s temperament got the better of him and he threw his racket into the turf in frustration, earning a code violation.
But with Murray’s first serve slipping, the italian had no problem holding on to his second break. it was a rare levelling, as Murray had not lost a second set at Wimbledon after winning the first since the 2012 final against Federer.
Murray gave an unusually bloodcurdling yell to fire himself up when holding at the start of the third, which was probably of equal significance to the italian jarring his ankle as he darted out wide to retrieve a drive.
An injury time- out was called after Murray had broken for 3-1, which quickly became a routine looking 6-1.
Fognini earned his point penalty at 2-1 in the fourth when he seemed to do nothing more than stick his finger in his mouth, which French umpire Damien Dumusois considered a visual obscenity, for no obvious reason.
if that fired up anyone it was Fognini, who broke twice to get to 5-2 before Murray, short on rhythm but long on heart, dug in on the big points. Four set points were saved before he broke back for 4-5 and then another as his serve continued to misfire.
ultimately the manner of the win is why Murray has spent so many years in the top 10 and Fognini the same time around its fringes. it will, however, take more than attitude to survive the second week.