If this was my last match, it was a brilliant way to finish
One day Andy Murray will sit down with his children and tell them about what he used to do for a living. ‘I’ll just tell them that I played sport,’ said Murray in the wake of one more extraordinary match, potentially the last of his career.
never before has his tendency towards understatement seemed more absurd. no British athlete has played sport like Murray, and his five-set defeat by Roberto Bautista Agut was perhaps a last, thrilling reminder of that fact.
Melodrama met melancholy on the Melbourne Arena court. The theatre was wonderful but it was tinged with sadness, because it cannot be known if we will again see the 31-year-old Scot produce the kind of bloody-minded brilliance that almost saw him pull off a great comeback.
Murray continued the theme later when he considered a match that spanned four hours and nine minutes.
‘If today was my last match, it was a brilliant way to finish,’ he said. ‘It was an amazing atmosphere. I literally gave everything that I had on the court, fought as best I could, and performed a lot better than I should have done with the amount I’ve been able to practise and train.’
It is only a shame that Sophia and edie may not get the chance to see their father do his unique thing, and he acknowledged that. ‘I would like my daughters to come and watch me play a tennis match, hopefully understand what’s happening before I finish,’ he said. ‘But I’m aware that probably isn’t going to happen now. I’m a bit sad about that.’
Murray had hobbled in to do his media duties well past midnight, his evening’s exertions against a highly skilled opponent having already taken their toll.
The cheers of a crowd who seemed to have adopted him as an Australian for the night were still ringing in his ears, but this multi-layered and complex personality also chose the moment to open up on some regrets.
Specifically he spoke about how he has got himself into his current physical state by training too hard and being, to an extent, his own worst enemy.
‘I would have been okay if I’d played a little bit less, taken a few more days off, spent a bit more time resting,’ he reflected. ‘Right now it’s something that frustrates me because of the situation I’m in and I wish I had done things a bit differently at times. I often didn’t stop myself when I was being told to do things.
‘I should have sometimes said: “no, I’m not doing that today, I don’t want to train today, I’m sore, I need a day off ”. I didn’t do that. I would always kind of just go along with what I was being told. That was a mistake.’
This could have been a reference to Ivan Lendl, whose uncompromising methods helped bring great success, but at a long-term cost.
nobody can know if or when Murray will be seen again on a tennis court, but if it does not happen, then this was a golden goodbye.
He was transformed from the anxious figure of last Thursday, whose public caning by novak Djokovic in a practice match precipitated an emotional public outpouring the following day, when he announced he would be quitting at some point this year.
Murray revealed that he was much more relaxed yesterday than when sparring with Djokovic. ‘I was really nervous in the practice with novak,’ he said. ‘I don’t know why exactly.
‘I know I’m not the same player I was. Also there’s a little bit of me that in every practice I’m holding back because I don’t want to hurt my hip more.
‘Today I knew it was potentially the last match I play. I don’t care if I damage my hip any more, so it’s a bit easier to deal with the pain because I know I don’t have to hit balls tomorrow. If I’m really sore, I’ve been dealing with it for a long time, and I’ll deal with it a few more days.’ It had looked, over the
first two sets, like Murray would go relatively quietly against the flat-hitting Spaniard who has already won an ATP title this season, nine days ago in Qatar.
But then he broke back in the third set to ignite a crowd who had seemed to become more resigned to Murray’s fate than the man himself ever was.
Walking between points as if he had a stone in his shoe, he was still agile enough when running needed to be done, although the movement is still clearly compromised compared to when he topped the rankings.
He forced a tiebreak which was taken 7-5 after his opponent’s nerve crumbled and an easy volley was missed at 5-4.
Judy Murray was there and so, unusually, was brother Jamie. The brothers are close but the leading doubles specialist likes to focus on his own business. They watched as Andy scampered around to force another tiebreak, which was claimed 7-4.
Murray had turned it into his kind of match, the kind of scurrying dogfight he enjoys and so excels in.
Bautista Agut was unravelling at 0-1 and 0-30 on serve in the decider, but the truth is that Murray then let him wriggle free with a series of marginal errors.
He knew it and so did his opponent, who then forced successive breaks as the chuntering Scot succumbed to fatigue and frustration.
Murray’s problem is that, beyond injuries, he has not been able to play enough matches in the past 18 months, and when that happens you lose the habit of converting the biggest points. Afterwards there was a mildly awkward moment when, playing to the crowd, he talked bravely about perhaps trying to come back to play in Melbourne.
It was then that a pre-arranged video tribute was shown on the big screen. There was a finality to it which did not sit entirely comfortably, given that Murray still wants to keep his options open.
Perhaps he might even end up like that great Australian scrapper Lleyton Hewitt. He officially retired three years ago but cannot stay away, popping up in doubles events, including here in Melbourne this fortnight.
Murray is a similar tennis obsessive and you would not rule anything out. As shown again here so extravagantly, he is a one-off, almost impossible to second guess.