FED LOSS WAS ‘EMBARRASSING’
ANDY MURRAY has admitted his humiliating defeat by Roger Federer at the O2 last November panicked his camp and forced him to assess his performances against the top players.
When he faces the Swiss in the semi-final tomorrow, Murray will hope his analysis has worked.
Federer has won all nine of his Wimbledon matches at this stage and will go into this tie on the back of a 6-0, 6-1 thrashing of the British No 1. Murray almost suffered a ‘double bagel’ and won only the penultimate game of the match, which lasted just 56 minutes.
‘A lot of people around me were very, very worried by that match,’ said Murray. ‘I felt quite calm about it, but it was obviously an embarrassing scoreline.
‘But I looked at the few weeks before then, the matches that I played at the O2, the matches I played against Novak Djokovic over that period as well, assessed it and asked, “Where am I going wrong against the top guys and what is it that I need to do to get back to that level competing with them?” I tried to be rational about it.
‘I came back and played some extremely good tennis at the beginning of the year in Australia. So it was a tough loss, for sure. But I tried to deal with it in the right way.’
Federer is taking nothing for granted. ‘Murray had won three tournaments back to back,’ he said. ‘He left everything out there making the World Tour Finals. I think when I played him, he was a bit cooked, to be honest. I played a great match, but it was not the Andy who usually shows up.’
That match took their head-tohead record to 12-11 in Federer’s favour, but since then Murray has responded emphatically and been in superb form.
He reached the Australian Open final and the semi-final of Roland Garros — both times losing to Djokovic — and won the Queen’s Club title.
Murray is hoping to improve his serve, which has been hampered since his shoulder started causing him trouble against Andreas Seppi in the third round.
‘My shoulder has felt better the last two or three days,’ he said. ‘I would like to get a little bit more pace behind the first serve. Hopefully that comes in the next couple of days.’