Murray sent crashing out
Struggling Murray suffers a thrashing by Wawrinka as doubts grow over his career
Roland Garros was so bleak yesterday that it felt like the zombie Grand slam and andy Murray contributed a performance that was entirely in keeping. The 33-year- old scot went down to his equal-heaviest defeat in a major, against the opponent who faced him on the same court on his last visit here.
That encounter in 2017 with stan Wawrinka was a gruelling five-setter. This one was all over in an hour and 47 minutes and yielded only six games for Murray. That tally was on a par with the meagre total rafael nadal allowed him here at the French open six years ago.
In his post-operative state, it is beginning to look like the law of diminishing returns at the slams for twice Wimbledon champion Murray.
His 6-1, 6-3, 6-2 defeat by the burly swiss comes on the back of only managing nine games against 20-year-old Canadian Felix auger-aliassime in the second round of the Us open.
some mitigation can be offered for both results, although in yesterday’s case that does not extend to the arctic cold and wind that made it feel like autumn had fast-forwarded into winter.
‘I need to have a long, hard think about it,’ admitted Murray. ‘It’s not the sort of match I would just brush aside and not give any thought to. I don’t feel like the conditions are an excuse for it.’
Former champion Mats Wilander, working for Eurosport, commented that it left him wondering why Murray is trying to come back: ‘does he have the right to be out there taking wildcards from young players?’ asked the swede. ‘andy Murray needs to stop thinking of himself and start thinking about who he was. I love the fact that he is back and trying. Hopefully he’ll figure out why he’s doing it.’
In new York, the world no 111 was still sore from an epic first-round win. Here, the speed of the court and balls, or lack of it, suited his opponent perfectly.
Wawrinka, the 2015 Paris champion, has the power to barrel through any court, unlike the version of Murray we see at this late stage of his career.
Yet life was made easier for Wawrinka by the dismal serving display he was up against, which was acknowledged by his opponent.
‘ It was cold and slow conditions, but it wasn’t particularly windy and it wasn’t too bad,’ conceded Murray. ‘ I also didn’t play well. I served under 40 per cent first serves in the court, which is just not good enough against anyone — especially someone as good as stan. You want to be serving 60 per cent, that sort of region. From there, that allows whoever you’re playing to dictate more of the points.’
While he will never be the extraordinary athlete he was before the summer of 2017, Murray at least expects his hand skills to be somewhere near where they were.
It would not be a huge surprise if he was now to start experimenting with equipment changes — such as racket and strings — to try to come up with a solution.
‘There have been matches that I have played since I came back where I hit the ball well,’ he reasoned.
‘alex Zverev was a couple of points away from winning the Us open and I won against him the week beforehand. It’s going to be difficult for me to play the same level as I did before, but I’ll keep going.
‘let’s see what the next few months hold. I reckon I won’t play a match like that between now and the end of the year. Probably the only positive of this is I will get more time to prepare for the indoor hard courts coming up.’
He plans to play as much as he can until november, starting with two events in Cologne next month. It was in such an environment that he beat Wawrinka last autumn to win the European open.
There was also confirmation that he is prepared to go through the two- week quarantine period the australian open has announced for anyone wishing to compete down Under in January.
The scot remains confident he can play at a much higher level, saying: ‘ I wouldn’t expect to physically be the same as I was before I had the operation. But in terms of ball- striking and my strokes and stuff, there is no reason that I shouldn’t be able to do that from a technical perspective.
‘There have been matches that I have played since I came back where I hit the ball well. It’s going to be difficult for me to play the same level as I did before.
‘I mean, I’m 33 now and I was ranked no 1 in the world, so it’s difficult with all the issues that I have had. But I’ll keep going.’