Murray tipped for final as he peaks at perfect moment
World No1 in last-eight rematch with Nishikori Win over Khachanov leaves Mcenroe purring
Anything is possible for Andy Murray, according to the former Wimbledon champion John Mcenroe, now that the world No 1 has shrugged off the niggles and neuroses that had plagued his French Open build-up.
Murray’s 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Karen Khachanov yesterday was genuinely strong and stable – the performance of a man who has timed his surge to perfection.
Afterwards, Mcenroe praised Murray for his unusually positive attitude, and predicted he will go on to play in the final here for the second year running.
“Andy’s been great,” said Mcenroe, who also maintains that a 10th French Open for Rafael Nadal is far from a foregone conclusion. “The draw looked fairly tough in the beginning. But now you would have to say you would be somewhat surprised if he didn’t get at least to the semis, if not the final.”
Yesterday’s result was probably the most routine and comfortable win that Murray has notched since February, when he lifted his one title of the season, in Dubai. He was going up against a young player who delivers venomous power off both wings. But Murray is tennis’s great shock absorber.
Khachanov, standing 6ft 6in and weighing some 15st, used all his strength to generate 34 clean winners – five more than Murray managed. But tennis is not just about pulverising the ball. For Murray, it’s about shaping and manipulating his shots into awkward parts of the court. If there was one key to his win, it was his ability to work his returns onto Khachanov’s backhand, thus avoiding the one-two punch of serve and forehand that the Russian wanted to deploy.
How different this performance was to the way Murray had been playing in the build-up to Paris. He hit a low point in Madrid, where he was so far off the pace that he made Borna Coric – a flyweight, in power terms – look like the tennis equivalent of Anthony Joshua.
As soon as he returned to best-offive-set tennis, however, Murray seemed more self-assured. His only missteps yesterday were two dropped service games. But he was able to reverse the damage on both occasions by winning the next game against the Khachanov serve, which he broke five times overall.
“I said after the last match that what’s important is what you’re thinking right before the following point,” said Murray. “Just now I’m quite clear with what I’m doing. I have hit the ball cleaner and started to see the right shots at the right moments. In the third set I didn’t play a good game [but] I reset pretty quickly and played some really good points the following game to get the break back and serve it out.”
Murray recorded the 650th match win of his career, the 18th player in ATP World Tour history to reach the 650 victories (or more) milestone. His reward is a reprise of last year’s US Open quarter-final, against Kei Nishikori – a dramatic match in which a random belch of noise from the PA system triggered a switch in momentum, and eventually a five-set win for Nishikori.
Mcenroe is not the only legend of the game tipping Murray to come out on top tomorrow. According to another former Wimbledon champion, Goran Ivanisevic, “Nishikori is going to crack. Andy is too good.”
This theory was supported by Eurosport commentator Mats Wilander, who said: “If you have come in and played below par leading into a major tournament, then you play well at the slam itself, it’s like the last two months never happened. It’s most possibly an advantage right now, as expectations will be a little lower and he [Murray] will be fresher.”
Simona Halep reinforced her status as the women’s favourite yesterday, by thrashing Carla Suárez Navarro 6-1, 6-1. In the men’s event, all the big names are still standing.
The only quarter-finalist who was not seeded to reach this point is Pablo Carreño Busta, who beat Milos Raonic to earn a crack at Rafael Nadal today.
Meanwhile, Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares went down 3-6, 7-6, 7-6 to Santiago Gonzalez and Donald Young in the quarter-finals of the men’s doubles.