Married bliss as Andy finds his feet on clay
CONGRATULATIONS ANDY! THE GOOD NEWS, YOU’VE WON A CAR... THE BAD NEWS, YOU’VE GOT TO WEAR THESE!
WITH his wedding r i ng dangling incongruously from his shoelaces, Andy Murray reeled off a string of firsts in taking the BMW Open title in Munich.
By defeating world No 24 Philipp Kohlschreiber 7-6, 5-7, 7-6 in a highquality encounter, the Scot won his first tournament not just of this season, but as a married man.
He also ended a 39-year wait for a British man to win a tour title on clay, emulating Buster Mottram, who took the now defunct tournament in Palma in 1976.
It was also Murray’s first event with Jonas Bjorkman as the senior presence in his coaching box in Amelie Mauresmo absence, although they are meeting up in Spain again this week.
Asked what it meant to be the first GB player to win on clay in so long he drily responded: ‘We’re not very good on clay.’
Another novelty was him donning lederhosen for the presentation ceremony, during which he was handed the keys to one of the sponsor’s i8 hybrid vehicles, which was his to take away.
But, far from being able to drive home in his prize, Murray headed straight to the airport to travel to Madrid, where the year’s second clay court Masters series event takes place.
He could even meet Kohlschreiber in the second round there, although the two of them may be sick of the sight of each other. They played for a shade more than three hours in Munich, and contested another two-day match at the French Open last year, which Murray won 12-10 in the fifth set.
The world No 3’ s hopes f or Roland Garros should have gone up a notch after this first clay court title not long short of his 28th birthday. It is a healthy psychological boost, although in truth reaching the semi-finals in Paris, which he has already done, was a greater achievement.
While Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal are inevitably the strong favourites, it is not beyond the realms that Murray and Kei Nishikori could have a say in the French Open’s outcome.
After collecting his 32nd career title, Murray said: ‘It was a really tough match, he served very close to the line and I was getting frustrated. The rain made things really hard, but as a Scot I’m used to that. It’s been a hard couple of days, so I am very happy to have won, especially on clay. I didn’t realise it had been so long for a British player.’
A younger Murray might have flaked out of Munich, which the weather made a difficult event for all concerned. Friday’s play was washed out, he needed to win twice on Saturday, and only five games were possible on Sunday.
Resuming at 3-2 down yesterday morning it came down to who could hold their nerve better in the two tiebreaks. Murray did not manage to break the Kohlschreiber serve once.
The German actually ended the match having won 118 points to Murray’s 117 but the Scot took more of the important ones. In five of his career finals Murray has been faced with a tiebreak in the decider and he has won all five of them.
On a clay surface made heavy by so many downpours it was hard going against local hero Kohlschreiber, who helped ensure a large Monday crowd turned out after the previous day’s postponement.
The two tiebreaks were similar — desperately close before Murray pulled ahead after the changeover, clinching them both 7-4.
If Kohlschreiber comes through his first- round match against Colombian qualifier Alejandro Falla he will take on Murray again in this week’s Madrid Masters.
That would give the world No 24 an early chance for revenge, but he was pleased to have run Murray so close yesterday, saying: ‘It obviously hurts when you have given your all, but I am grateful for the support I got. It’s too soon to think about the next tournament, but it showed we are at the same level and both of us went to our limits.’
Meanwhile, the winner of this year’s pre-Wimbledon Aegon Open WTA Tour event in Nottingham will be presented with the Elena Baltacha Trophy, named in honour of the former British No 1, who died a year ago yesterday aged 30.
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