‘My game is in the right place now,’ says French finalist Murray
Landing his first final at Roland Garros at the 10th time of asking is source of great pride for world No.2
Andy Murray said he was proud to reach his first French Open final and pledged to give it everything when he faces Novak Djokovic for the title tomorrow. The Scot produced a brilliant performance to beat the defending champion Stan Wawrinka 6-4, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 yesterday.
“It was for sure one of the better matches that I have played on clay throughout my career,” world No.2 Murray said. “Today I played well and I think my game is in the right place now.”
Murray will be chasing his third grand slam title, in his tenth final, and is just the tenth man in the Open era to reach the decider of all four events.
“Reaching the finals of the French, that’s a big moment for me,” Murray said. “It’s not an easy thing to do. A few years ago, I never really expected to be able to do that. I lost three semis. I lost two to Rafa [Nadal] and one to Novak last year. I’m proud I have managed to reach the final of all four.”
Djokovic has won five of their seven meetings in slams but Murray beat him to win Wimbledon and the US Open.
Murray said: “We have had some really big battles before. I’m sure it will be the same again on Sunday.”
WITH an impeccable sense of timing, Andy Murray appears to be peaking just at the right moment.
After he beat the defending champion, Stan Wawrinka, yesterday to reach the French Open final for the first time, the world No.2 described the performance as his best ever on a clay-court.
His 6-4 6-2 4-6 6-2 victory over the Swiss, achieved with some outstanding serving, bludgeoning forehands, deft drop shots and smart forays to the net, means he will take on Novak Djokovic, the world No.1, in tomorrow’s final.
All at sea in his opening two rounds, when he went the distance with lowlyranked opponents, Murray has found his game just when he needs it most and his performance against Wawrinka was simply brilliant.
His first serve was devastatingly effective and his much maligned second serve as good as it’s ever been. His drop shot kept Wawrinka off balance, he was deadly at the net and mentally he was rock-solid.
Murray is into his 10th grand slam final, a record of which he can be hugely proud, even if he has won “just” the two, at Wimbledon and the US Open.
He is also just the 10th man to reach all four grand slam finals and that achievement is arguably even better.
“It means a lot. To have reached the final of all four slams is not an easy thing to do,” said Murray, who pointed to playing in the same era as Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal and Djokovic.
“At this stage of my career I’ve had to make a lot of improvements, a lot of changes to my clay court game, so to do it at the 10th attempt here makes me feel very proud and there’s been a lot of hard work gone into it.”
Going into yesterday’s match, many experts felt Wawrinka might have the edge, given his win here last year and the fact that his heavy groundstrokes would be able to penetrate the cool conditions.
But Murray picked up where he had left off in the final two sets of his win over Richard Gasquet in the quarterfinals and after saving an early break point at 1-1, he was in control.
Having broken for 2-1, he again saved break points when serving out the set, after which he ripped through the second set with some of big hitting and astute use of the drop shot.
When Wawrinka saved break point to hold for 2-1 himself in the third set, the Swiss got the crowd on his side and some dominant hitting brought him back into the match, pinching the set thanks to one break in the 10th game.
But Murray reset immediately and broke at the start of the second set, repeating the feat in the seventh game before serving out for one of the biggest victories of his career, given the achievement.
Murray’s misfortune at being in the same era as Federer, Nadal and Djokovic means that he has never had the luxury of playing someone lower-ranked in any of his slam finals.
Since beating Djokovic to win Wimbledon in 2013, Murray has lost 12 of his 14 matches against the Serb, who is dominating the game now as much as Federer did in his pomp. But Murray will take a lot of belief from his first ever win over Djokovic on clay, which came in Rome last month as he claimed a second Masters 1000 title on a surface he was once suspicious of.
“Any time you beat the best players it can help a little bit,” he said. “We played finals in Madrid and Rome, the Madrid match was tight as well.
“There’s going to be a lot riding on the match for both of us and hopefully I can play a great match because if I want to win I will have to do that.
“Today was definitely one of the best matches I’ve played at the French Open so hopefully I can continue that performance on Sunday.”
Djokovic was equally impressive yesterday as he crushed the 22-year-old Austrian, Dominic Thiem, considered one of the best young players in the sport, 6-1 6-2 6-4.
The world No.1 said his recent strong against Murray gives him “a small percentage, mentally” but that he expects nothing other than a bruising final.
“It’s going to be a very physical battle, which always is the case,” he said, adding that he was looking forward to a day off having played on four straight days because of rain.
Fellow Scot Gordon Reid, meanwhile, has reached his second consecutive grand slam wheelchair final by knocking out world No.1 Stephane Houdet 6-3 6-4 yesterday to set up a meeting with Argentine Gustavo Fernande, while Martina Hingis and Leander Paes completed the mixed doubles career grand slam with a 4-6 6-4 10-8 win over Sania Mirza and Ivan Dodig.