NO FIRST FOOT IN AUSTRALIA BUT FUTURE RENAISSANCE IS ONE STEP AT A TIME
THERE will be no first foot in Australia. But what is Andy Murray’s next step? The decision not to travel Down Under for the Australian Open and the ATP Trophy was dramatic in its timing but not shocking in its substance.
The signs of fragility had been flashing. His one appearance in the Davis Cup in Madrid was concerning but his decision not to travel to Miami for his traditional training block raised an alarm that could not be silenced.
The good news is that the pelvic problem can be treated and may be linked to increased pressure on that area because of the surgery to his hip.
The body takes time to accommodate to such changes in tension and placing of body weight.
Murray, crucially, believes this is a problem that can be worked through. He is still hitting on court as an appearance in Edinburgh last week with coach Jamie Delgado testifies.
Grim experience has shown him, though, that some problems have to be accepted and injuries do not react well to being placed under continued stress in a straight contest with a strength of will.
He has bowed to the reality that he is not ready to face the severe challenges posed by a Grand Slam on hard court in punishing temperatures. The return is thus set for the Open Sud Du France in Montpellier in February.
The Scot’s precise well-being and physical fitness has to be gauged from several clues. Team Murray holds a communal silence that makes the Mafia’s Law of Omerta seem like a code for garrulous gossiping.
But we know he is hitting, we know he plans a return and we know, too, that when pain and injury lift, he is still a superb player — albeit one that has only played three Grand Slam matches since losing in the quarter-finals at Wimbledon in 2017 when the hip problem became unsustainable.
The rest is in the hands of nature and, perhaps, fortune. It is a matter of fingers crossed. Of all the exercises performed by Murray in his long trek back to fitness, it is surely that traditional cry for a little bit of luck that indicates what he requires in a coming year of uncertainty and opportunity.
Murray is a character who leaves nothing to chance in his preparations but it was his repeated mention of “fingers crossed” in a recent documentary that showed that when it comes to resurfacing hips and coming back to elite sport, the Scot requires not just his extraordinary resistance and his undiminished will but also a smile and even a wee cuddle from Lady Luck.
Once it was easy to predict a Murray year. He would win his share of ATP tournaments, he was a serial semi-finalist or finalist in the majors — and if it was Olympic year, then he would win gold.
But 2020 already promises to be different. Murray will be 33 in May. Without the wrist injuries, the broken metatarsal, the bipartite patella, the back surgery and the reworked hip, he would already be vulnerable to the depredations of age and the pursuit of hungry youngsters.
So what causes for optimism can there be, particularly after the latest setback? The answer lies, ironically, in the battered frame.
Murray invokes scenes from two films. For his fans, there is the moment in Godfather III when Al
Pacino, as Michael Corleone, cries out: ‘Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.’ The communal moment of resignation that Murray would surely not come back has been replaced, yet again, by hopes of further glory.
For Murray himself, the scene is from Terminator II. The villain is regularly obliterated only to reform in front of our eyes. This is Murray: getting knocked down, getting back up again.
The apparently final knockout, the premature eulogies of Melbourne 2019, have faded.
This is a setback, not the end.
Murray came back and won a doubles title at Queen’s with Feliciano Lopez in July and then sensationally defeated Stan Wawrinka in Antwerp in October to win an ATP title, his first since Doha in 2017.
Yes, Wawrinka was also coming back from injury but the quality of performance in Belgium raised expectations.
Murray was back at a high level. Could he and his followers begin to hope for a wondrous renaissance?
The fingers must have been momentarily uncrossed. The pelvic injury limited his appearances in the Davis Cup in Madrid to one laboured victory over Tallon Griekspoor from the Netherlands and subsequently Miami was scrubbed from the training schedule and a family visit to Scotland was slotted in.
Murray is taking a breath before walking into a new world in 2020. The old gang will still be there but there are questions over them.
Can Novak Djokovic regain his mojo? Can Rafa Nadal’s knees stand up to another year? And how much can we expect from Roger Federer, who is in his 39th year and will be in his 40th before the 2020 US Open?
There is, too, the possibility that a new wave can come through finally.
Stefanos Tsitsipas, who is 21, defeated Federer handily at the Australian Open last year and won the ATP Tour finals.
He may be the next big thing. Dominic Thiem, 26, Daniil Medvedev, 23, Alexander Zverev, 22, Matteo Berrettini, 23, are all in the top ten now and should be targeting deep and significant inroads into the Grand Slam tournaments.
Canadians Denis Shapovalov, 20, (ranked 15) and Felix AugerAliassime, 19, (ranked 21) have the talent and the drive, too.
The difficulty for Murray is stark. His greatest test will be the matter of recovery, in the short term and when he returns to playing. The Grand-Slam route is simple: win seven matches in 14 days.
This challenge stretches the very best. It plays upon any weakness. Murray is not yet at a level to sustain such an effort.
However, he will pose an unwanted threat to anybody, particularly in the first round, if he appears at Roland Garros or even
delays his Grand-slam return to Wimbledon.
There are signs, too, that Murray will modify his game to accommodate his altered circumstances. The scot was once the grinder, prepared to play that extra shot, ready to take the rally into 20-plus shots.
One may see a more aggressive player, a competitor more attuned to going for the quick kill. The temptation to name Murray for a major is irresistible but only in the case of his older brother Jamie, who has formed a promising partnership already with neal skupski and who is always a favourite in the mixed doubles, whoever his partner.
There can be no such certainty about andy. There is a suspicion that even he does not know what he can survive or what he can achieve in yet another year on tour. His party piece remains, however. His innate ability to push back against ill fortune, to suffer wounds and yet recover, to be weak so as to become stronger. He needs to call on this trait yet again. He remains andy Murray, the warrior. This supplies the essence of the Murray conundrum. Only a fool would predict a Grand slam win for the country’s greatest ever sportsman. Only a madman would rule him out entirely.