Murray loses to Wawrinka in French Open semi-final
Andy Murray’s French Open is over but the world No 1 should console himself with the fact that he went out of Roland Garros only after a semi-final that will live long in the memory. Stan Wawrinka, who had lost to Murray at the same stage 12 months earlier, beat the Scot 6-7, 6-3, 5-7, 7-6, 6-1 after four hours and 34 minutes in the best match of the tournament for far.
Murray was within four points of victory in the tie-break at the end of the fourth set, but Wawrinka, the ultimate strong man of tennis, held firm and won a final set in which the scoreline did not do justice to a contest that had been desperately tight for the first four hours.
Despite the disappointment of failing to reach his 12th Grand Slam final, Murray could be more than satisfied with his achievements given that he had arrived here with major doubts about his health and his form. He has put behind him the difficulties of the first five months of this year and will head into the grass-court season with his confidence renewed. Wimbledon starts in little more than three weeks’ time.
“I’m proud of the tournament I had,” Murray said afterwards. “I was one tiebreak away from getting to the final after I had come [into the tournament] really struggling.
“Maybe the lack of matches hurt me a little bit in the end today. That was a very high-intensity match, with a lot of long points. When you haven’t been playing loads, that can catch up with you a little bit over four and a half hours. I only have myself to blame for that, for the way I played coming into the tournament, but I turned my form around really, really well.”
Asked how close he thought he was to playing his best tennis again, Murray said: “I played pretty well these last few matches. Even when you’re playing well, you’re not going to win every match you play, but I put myself in a position to reach a Slam final, so I’m obviously playing pretty good. I played some good stuff here. How close that is to my tennis from last year, I don’t know, but hopefully it gives me a good base to go into the grass-court season.”
His opponent on Sunday will be Rafael Nadal, who extended his remarkable run of form to beat Dominic Thiem 6-3, 6-4, 6-0. Nadal, who has dropped only 29 games in his six matches, will be chasing his first Grand Slam title since he won here for the ninth time three years ago.
The Independent