Murray’s close shave
Champion survives Wimbledon wobble
In a battle of two wounded soldiers, Andy Murray limped his way past an alternately inspired and listless Fabio Fognini. The prize was a place in the fourth round of Wimbledon for a 10th straight year, but Fognini proved to be a more challenging obstacle than anyone had expected. As the light died on Centre Court, Murray managed to sneak through a bizarre yet fascinating match by a 6-2, 4-6, 6-1, 7-5 margin.
This was hardly the performance that Murray and his camp would have wanted. From the back of the court, he had little to offer but line and length. And for a half-hour spell in the middle of the match, he found himself cast as the patsy in a show-stopping display from Fognini, an Italian who struts like a cockerel and has the hands of a magician.
Fognini’s devil-may-care streak can work both ways, as he switches from angelic tennis to utter carelessness. The villainous streak came out at the end of the first set, when he served three double-faults in a row. At that stage, it looked as if it might be a quick day’s work for Murray, who needed only 29 minutes to take the opener 6-2.
But Fognini was not the only man in Jekyll-and-hyde form. Having not been broken in either of his first two matches, Murray began the second set by dropping his serve twice in three attempts. He became the first member of the ‘Big Four’ to give up a set at this tournament.
The match had the potential to turn nasty at this stage, if Fognini had carried the same energy into the third set. But instead he began walking gingerly at the next changeover. Two games later, he had the trainer on and a lengthy medical time-out ensued, with strapping being applied to the right ankle. The interruption drained all the momentum out of the match and allowed Murray to reel off the next four games.
This was fortunate, as Murray was still unable to apply any telling blows. As we moved into the fourth set, Fognini had hit more than 20 winners from the baseline and Murray only two.
The score was now 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 in favour of Murray, but the twists were set to continue. Perhaps the anti-inflammatory pills that Fognini had swallowed now began to kick in, because he was dancing around the court once again. And the Italian’s volcanic temper was also roused by a bold call from the chair umpire, Damien Dumusois, who docked him a point for a second code of conduct violation.
The first violation had come for racket abuse, at the end of the first set. The second was for an obscenity, early in the fourth – although it seemed to be a gesture rather than a rude word that Dumusois was objecting to. “The referee [umpire] is French,” said Fognini later, “and Italy and France are always fighting. It’s ridiculous.”
Now his intensity returned to where it had been in the second set, and the winners began to flow. Some of his half-volleys were completely out of this world, showing off the artistry that had helped him wipe the floor with Murray in their most recent meeting on a clay court in Rome, less than two months ago.
Murray’s movement, meanwhile, was starting to look laboured. With each of his matches in this tournament, we have found ourselves reassessing the state of his wonky left hip. The first indications yesterday were encouraging, as he began with a series of 124mph serves, perhaps 10mph faster than he had managed in the early stages of his first two rounds. But Fognini was a more resilient opponent than either Sasha Bublik or Dustin Brown. As the match wore on, Murray’s limp grew more and more accentuated.
As the gloom closed in on the All England Club, Dumusois docked Fognini another point – this time under the hindrance rule – for calling out “challenge” when he had no challenges left. This extra intervention helped Murray grind his way back from 5-2 down, saving five set points and claiming five straight games to close out the win.
“I didn’t feel like it was the best tennis at times,” he said. “but I managed to get through.”
Afterwards, both players added their voices to concerns over the playing surface. “I don’t think is in as good of condition as previous years,” said Murray. “There’s quite a few spots on the court, lumps of grass, like divots.”