ANDY ROARS BACK
Murray seals victory then opens up on his on-court behaviour
ANDY MURRAY described beating a 37-year- old qualifier as potentially one of the most important wins of his career. And, after 48 hours of bad weather and off- court distractions involving his coach Amelie Mauresmo, that might prove true of the huge struggle it took to overcome world No 129 Radek Stepanek.
Certainly if Murray is holding up the winner’s trophy — the Coupe Des Mousquetaires — a week on Sunday he will look back on his 3-6, 3-6, 6-0, 6-3, 7-5 victory and it will look mighty significant.
The 29-year- old needed to battle against an inspired opponent, weather delays and the destabilising effect of comments from his former coach, just to reach the French Open second round. It took 85 minutes to finish off the crafty Czech veteran, during which he came within two points of defeat. Murray later moved to try and clear up what he thinks are misconceptions about his split with Mauresmo earlier this month.
They arose from observations she made in a weekend interview in which she described him as ‘complex’ and his on-court behaviour as sometimes disconcerting.
‘When we sat down in Madrid it was far from heated, we spoke very calmly the whole time,’ he said. ‘To say that the reason that we stopped working together is because of my behaviour on the court, that is not true. When we spoke, we didn’t discuss that one time.
‘For sure, when we were working together, we discussed many things on the court, and there were times when, like with all of my coaches, they said, “you need to concentrate more on the match. Stop directing your frustration at the box and being distracted from what’s going on”.
‘Amelie and I do have a good relationship. Obviously what’s hap- pened the last few days has been difficult, because I didn’t have a chance to talk about it.
‘The reason we stopped working was the fact that we literally were spending hardly any time together in a three-month period right before major events coming up.’
Addressing whether he is a complex character Murray said: ‘Away from the court, probably not. On the court, yeah. When I’m losing I get very frustrated. When I’m winning, obviously I’m happier. I don’t know if that’s complex or not. It’s actually quite simple, to me, anyway.
‘There are also, for me, some good attributes that I have on the court, too. I displayed them in abundance today, in my opinion, and yesterday.
‘I fought extremely hard from a difficult position. Yes, I was getting frustrated, but I gave everything to try to win the match and got myself out of a situation that not all players would have been able to get themselves out of.’
Whatever his interpretation of Mauresmo’s comments — and they were open to interpretation — his latter assertion about being a proper scrapper has long since been impossible to argue with.
Prior to baring his soul after being asked about his former coach, Murray made what seemed to be a slightly pointed remark, saying: ‘It easily could have gone the other way. I’m glad that my team’s right behind me in situations like that.’
Events had conspired against Murray in the match, because had the match gone to its natural conclusion on Monday night he would assuredly have put away the tiring Stepanek with little bother.
Instead, the Czech came bouncing out for the lunchtime restart with Murray 4-2 up in the fourth and played at a ridiculously high level for his ranking.
He should surely present a stiffer challenge than today’s opponent, French wildcard Mathias Bourgue, who is listed at 164 in the world.
Murray will have expended more energy than he wanted, but there is a long history of matches like this also having a galvanising effect on the survivor.
The Scot has come through plenty of them before, to the point where he was trying to avoid being knocked out of a Grand Slam before the third round for the first time in nearly eight years. Defeat would have been shattering, because he is a genuine contender for the title based on form since finishing with Mauresmo.
Stepanek resembled more the player who once inhabited the top 10, and produced a clever brand of all-court tennis that featured deft dropshots and crisp volleys backed up by pinpoint serves.
He created two break points straightaway and it soon became evident that the chilly, sluggish conditions were causing problems for Murray, who said: ‘The way the court’s playing, it’s extremely heavy. It’s very difficult to push guys back. Players like him are hitting the ball relatively flat. It’s not playing like a true clay court right now.’
Stepanek played so well that he got to within two points of the match, forcing deuce at 5- 4. Murray sealed that game with an ace and then, without warning, the Czech played a terrible game in which he threw in three groundstroke errors and a double fault.
Murray was into the second round, in not dissimilar fashion to defending champion Stan Wawrinka, who came through a five- set match against Czech Lukas Rosol on Monday.
There were no such dramas for Novak Djokovic or Rafael Nadal. The Spaniard was particularly impressive, taking only 80 minutes to dismantle big-serving Australian Sam Groth 6-1, 6-1, 6-1. Djokovic was detained 10 minutes longer, overcoming Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun 6-4, 6-1, 6-1.