MURRAY BLOWS AWAY THE HULK
Andy beats man mountain Karlovic to roar into last eight
It IS players such as Ivo Karlovic who make Andy Murray’s incredible consistency at the Grand Slams all the more admirable.
Serving from about the height of the Royal Box, slamming it down at an average 119mph — on his second delivery, that is — Karlovic is the sort of opponent who can trip up even the very best before they are deep into a tournament.
But Murray finds a way to handle them, and yesterday’s game of Murderball that masqueraded as a tennis match ended with him making the quarter-finals for the 18th straight time he has entered one of the big four events.
On 13 occasions he has gone better than that, and that will almost certainly become 14 tomorrow after he has taken on Vasek Pospisil, someone who is not in the same class as the 28-year-old Scot.
Moreover, world No 55 Pospisil was forced to play 10 sets yesterday, with Jamie Murray doing his brother a favour by keeping the Canadian on court for five of them in knocking him out of the doubles. Murray interrupted his post-match press conference to clench his fists in delight when Jamie’s result came up on the electronic board.
It is the most benign draw but you cannot say Murray — fourth in the modern era Grand Slam consistency list behind Roger Federer, Jimmy Connors and Novak Djokovic — has failed to earn it.
For three hours and three minutes on Centre Court yesterday he withstood the expected bombardment from the giant Croatian to win a grimly fascinating encounter 7-6, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4.
Keep your diary clear for Murray versus Federer in the semi-finals late on Friday afternoon.
the match turned on a key intervention from Hawk-Eye, a device with which Murray has had a mixed history. At 3-3 and break point in an increasingly agonising fourth set, Murray chiselled out a return and Karlovic bent from a great height to respond with a backhand volley.
Murray could not make his reply count and called for a video replay. the all- seeing eye judged that Karlovic’s volley was two millimetres out and the gold dust of a break was in his hand. ‘When it hits the line the ball basically checks and I knew that didn’t happen. they’ve gone for me and against me and that was obviously a very important one,’ he said.
the 6ft 3in Murray cut a Lilliputian figure when he finally got to shake hands at the net as the arena breathed a collective sigh of relief. there is a nightmarish vision of the future in tennis when most players will resemble Karlovic who is, in extremis, a version of the big- serving boomers who have done well in recent weeks.
there could be a similar cab off the rank soon in the shape of 6ft 11in American teenager Reilly Opelka, who was playing in the juniors on an outside court while Murray was flailing away at the Karlovic bombs on Centre.
At least the world No 3 had a racket to defend himself with. the poor line judges pinned against the back fence watching the centre service line were bobbing and weaving like an England batsman facing Mitchell Johnson. One took a blow to the head but soldiered on.
With his lightning reactions, you suspect Murray would have been a decent player of pace bowling had cricket crossed his path.
He makes something of a speciality of beating tall players and this was the 25th consecutive occasion that he has overcome someone of greater height than himself, and the sixth time he has beaten Karlovic.
What will be priceless is the further strengthening of his reservoir of self-belief from coming through a match that was always going to be more mentally than physically taxing.
He found a variety of ways to get past the enormous frame that presented itself at the net, either drilling the ball round Karlovic or, with ludicrous ambition, repeatedly lobbing him. Karlovic said afterwards he had never been by-passed with such skill.
the pressure Karlovic (left) brings to bear is the knowledge that a couple of false moves on your own serve can spell doom as convertible break chances on his serve are a currency of rare value. It was not long before Murray was reminded of this. Moving
up the court to receive serve within a couple of feet of the baseline he could make inroads, but his first two break points were met by Karlovic with aces of 134mph and 131mph.
In the first tiebreak Murray had to come back from 4-2 down before missing a chance to serve it out at 6-5 and then finally winning it 9-7 on what, by then, was an eighth break point.
the second was won through an early break and Murray could have clinched it quicker, had he taken one of two break opportunities at 3-3.
One loose game at 5-6 took it into a fourth, and after the Hawk- Eye adjudication there was still drama as Karlovic — a bit more than a one-trick funeral horse — had two break points of his own in the next game.
Pospisil has a strong serve that proved the undoing of Britain’s James Ward on Saturday, but it will still feel like light relief to Murray compared to the rearing monster of yesterday.