Murray refuses to say he will be back after defeat by Isner
John Isner (US) bt Andy Murray (GB) 6-4, 7-6, 6-7, 6-4
Andy Murray was non-committal about a return to Wimbledon after suffering his earliest defeat at the All England Club of his career.
Murray ended an eight-match winning streak against big-serving American John Isner, crashing out after a frustrating night on Centre Court. “I feel disappointed right now,” a visibly deflated Murray said. “Obviously I wanted to do well here. I love playing at Wimbledon, a surface that I feel like I can still compete with the best guys on. It definitely, definitely hurts.
“If physically I’m in a good place, yeah, I will continue to play. But it’s not easy to keep my body in optimal condition to compete at the highest level.”
Any match against Isner has one guarantee: there will be few opportunities to break his enormous serve and when they do come, they will be crucial. It is a test Murray knows well and usually passes with flying colours. But when given a refresher course last night, he faltered.
There were just five break points between them throughout the match. Isner converted two of his three. Murray failed to convert either of his. That was the difference in this 6-4, 7-6, 6-7, 6-4 loss for the two-time champion.
Before this match, Murray had only ever failed to break his opponents’ serve twice at a slam event: once against Roger Federer and the other against Rafael Nadal. But Isner joined that esteemed company.
Murray’s good run on grass this year, ahead of an abdominal injury setback two weeks ago, was part of why he had such high hopes. He was also arguably the favourite going up against 20th-seed Isner, against whom he had a 100-per-cent record going into the match.
Murray had never lost more than one set to him, and all but one of the sets he had dropped were in tiebreaks. He has always been supremely disciplined when facing big-serving players. So when he dropped his second service game, the first set – and even the match – already felt somewhat out of his hands.
He duly lost the opener, and then was dragged into a tie-break in the second, where Isner outplayed him. Two sets down, Murray was on the brink. Never had he lost prior to the third round at Wimbledon, as even last year he had scuttled through while still far from fully fit. But last night he was rarely given a look in.
Much is made of Murray’s longevity, but Isner is also getting on. At 37 he is two years Murray’s senior. The type of game he plays though has not left the same scars on his body as the Briton’s. Isner stuck to his only available game-plan here and continued his routine of rattling through serves, hitting 36 aces in total and winning 84 per cent of points on his first serve. His average serve speed for the match – 128mph – surpassed Murray’s fastest.
But other dimensions to his game were eye-catching, too. He made 82 winners to 32 unforced errors. When Murray managed to get a return in, Isner moved to the net and his touch was superb throughout. He also took the return very early to keep pressure on Murray’s serve. It was impressive, but the formulaic efficiency got tedious for some. Barely an hour into the match, a despondent crowd member shouted: “John Isner, I’m so bored of you.”
Luckily for them, Murray was not going out without a fight. He hung on for a third-set tie-break, and made 100 per cent of his returns during it to finally give himself a chance. Isner spewed a couple of errors, and Murray took control with a couple of drop shots to set up three set points.
Then Murray hit one of his best serves of the match, and Isner barely got a racket to it. With the ball flying through the air, on its way wide, Murray began leaping up and down with childlike abandon. His wild celebrations perhaps distracted the umpire, who missed the fact that a ball boy had controversially caught the ball before it even landed out of play. Strictly speaking, the point should have been replayed. But perhaps it was lucky that it went unspotted, as the raucous Centre Court crowd may have rioted.
On we went to a fourth set, the momentum fully in Murray’s grasp before the wheels came off serving at 2-2. With Isner at the net, Murray tried a backhand pass and it went wide, handing his opponent a second break point of the match. Murray hit a sublime backhand pass that had Isner on the grass to save it, but then hit two shots into the net. His serve broken again, Murray returned to his seat with his head in his hands.
He knew what was coming. Isner played a flawless rest of the set and served it out first time. The American’s muted celebrations hid how much breaking Murray’s winning streak actually meant to him. “It’s no secret that I am most definitely not a better tennis player than Andy Murray,” Isner said afterwards. “This was one of the biggest wins of my career.”
Asked how he held off Murray, he summed it up with a wry smile: “I served.”