Black Wednesday as Murray wages war with the world
It was one of those matches when Andy Murray seems at war with a hundred things beyond his control. the sun. the rain. the floodlights. Members of the public returning late to their seats. Umpiring inconsistencies on points called and gone. Bizarre eruptions from the stadium air ducts. Butterflies.
We know how exhausting his season has been, but it seems so counter-productive, even after winning the first set 6-1.
Remember Johnny, the painter from The Fast Show? the amateur artist who always felt he needed more black. It’s like that. the match can be going entirely to plan. Lovely afternoon in New York. Patrons fluttering their little yellow fans in the thick air; Murray dealing with all Kei Nishikori has to offer, a complete absence of unforced errors.
And then Murray decides the sun is shining too brightly; or the umpire isn’t shining brightly enough. And it’s as if he needs some more black.
take the noises off. In the first set, there was a disruptive outburst from the crowd. Marija Cicak, the umpire, ruled the players should continue through it. In the fourth set, there was a loud and sudden clang through the air con. Cicak ordered the point replayed. Murray moaned at the inconsistency, understandably.
Yet he continued moaning at the break, to the umpire, then to the referee, long after the moment had passed. then he came out, lost his serve, and went 3-1 down. Not that he didn’t have a point. He most certainly did. But making it, again and again, became counter-productive. He was still going on about it when Nishikori held his serve to make it 4-1.
this is how he goes from being one set and a second set break up, to one set all; this is how he goes from winning the first set 6-1 to losing the fourth by the same margin; this is how what should have been a relatively comfortable win becomes a white knuckle five-set defeat.
It is these odd lapses that even old stoneface Ivan Lendl fights to control. they are a quite brilliant team, Lendl and Murray – arguably one of the most successful coaching partnerships in modern sport, considering the lift in Murray’s game and the results when they become reacquainted. there have been 16 straight wins, with Lendl perched in Murray’s box.
Yet without doubt, beyond any insights Lendl can bring into Murray’s game technically and tactically his biggest battle remains with Murray’s temperament. those dark moments that descend almost inexplicably; beyond the frustration any elite sportsman feels at tiny reversals of fortune; beyond the irritation that his own magnificent talent cannot be relied upon all the time; beyond the test of a cussed opponent like Nishikori.
If Murray got grumpy in a conventional way it would be no issue. It happens. What Lendl must combat — what he is usually brilliant at seeing off— is Murray at his most ill-reasoned. those moments when he argues with the weather, or some random corporate guest juggling two hot dogs in a sprint finish back to his seats that he was never going to win.
He starts on them and then turns it on himself, gets in a mood and now he’ s battling two opponents. ‘Idiot!’ he screamed in the fifth set as a double fault helped hand a break to Nishikori.
Lendl’s presence alone has been a curb in the past, mostly by deploying the silent treatment. Stare straight ahead. Say nothing. Do not react. See me: I am calm. this is how you should be. Stay calm as I do.
But there were moments yesterday, when even Lendl scratched furiously at his forehead. Murray had the match, lost control of it, got it back, let it slip again, lost. He would break, only to be broken immediately. It happened in the second set and twice in the third, before he broke a third time and held for 6-4.
By then, however, he had a third opponent. Having seen Nishikori close to annihilated initially the Flushing Meadows crowd responded to the spirit of the underdog. the No 6 seed became their man.
And Nishikori delivered, too. Murray is the better player, no doubt of that, and led their previous meetings 7-1 including a quite savage victory at the Olympics — but Nishikori’s forehand was outstanding, and when he came to the net in the second set he was particularly effective.
Most significantly, he held it together, waiting patiently until the fifth set to take the lead in the match. Well beaten in the first set, 2-1 down after three sets, he held it together. Murray didn’t. Having clawed his way back from the brink, magnificently, in the final set, he surrendered his serve at 5-5, and lost.
COMPARED to the route Novak Djokovic is taking through this tournament, the paths of the top two seeds almost feel like a sports science experiment. there is Murray, who would have to be superhuman not to be fatigued by his exertions at the French Open, Wimbledon and then the Olympics.
And Djokovic, whose opponents here have mostly decided they have better things to do than get smeared across the surface at Arthur Ashe Stadium. Scratches, withdrawals, retirees, Djokovic’s period on court to reach the semi-finals amounts to less time than he would have spent in the air, flying here from europe. Murray toiled and eventually fell — his first defeat in five sets at the US Open since he was 18.
So the question remains: can a great player truly be undercooked at a Grand Slam? Does it matter that Djokovic is not getting the same work- out as the rest, or will he arrive in Sunday’s final fresh and rested? Ominously, Serena Williams is bidding to be tennis’ greatest woman here. Comfortable victories throughout her career don’t seem to have done her much harm.