Murray shrugs off the threat of hothead Klizan’s curve balls
It is five years since Andy Murray was described as a “drama queen” by Virginia Wade, after a match here at the French Open which featured all manner of strange physical contortions.
The label has proved hard to shift, perhaps because so many of Murray’s matches develop into theatrical productions, often with a hint of tragicomedy along the way. Take his first-round encounter on Tuesday, in which he threatened to lose his way against world No73 Andrey Kuznetsov before a miraculous lob restored his selfbelief, whereupon he reeled off the last eight games like the world No1 he still happens to be.
But if Murray can be a complex and unpredictable character on court, he comes across as vanilla compared to today’s opponent, Martin Klizan. On a tour that is rediscovering some of the badboy edge of the 1980s, Klizan is a serious hothead. Only this week, he and his firstround opponent Laurent Lokoli began shouting at each other at a changeover, prompting the umpire to skip down from the chair and separate them.
If Klizan’s temper is always fiery, he is also prone to fading in and out of matches. In this latest instance Lokoli accused him of exaggerating a calf injury. “He was holding his leg for two sets, and then during the fifth set, all of a sudden it changes.”
Was this gamesmanship? Perhaps, although there is no obvious reason why it helped Klizan to lose the fourth set 6-0. In any case, Murray believes he will be able to cope with any curve balls the world No 50 might throw.
“I’ve seen him play and he’s unorthodox,” said Murray of the Slovak No 1. “He’ll go through patches in the match where he’s playing some unbelievable stuff and then he drops off a little and plays some strange shots which may appear like he’s not interested. But that’s how he plays the game, that’s what’s been successful for him.
“I’ve played well over 800 matches on the tour,” added Murray, “so there wouldn’t be too much that would surprise me or shock me. If he’s tanking sets against me, I’m happy with that. For his opponent, it’s a positive thing because he’s handing a set over.”
Murray is not fully recovered from the respiratory infection that required a dose of antibiotics last week. In his BBC column yesterday, he said: “I’m still coughing my way around Roland Garros. The more I talk, the more I want to cough.”