Murray now turning clock back in style
ANDY MURRAY back playing Novak Djokovic, three men in the last 16 of a big clay court championship, a reigning US Open women’s champion.
These are giddy times for British tennis — ironically at a point in history when it has set its face against the professional tours by banning Russians from UK tournaments.
Murray faces Djokovic in the third round of the Madrid Open today for the first time in more than five years, a triumph of both modern hip renewal techniques and his refusal to quit.
He will not be an isolated figure, after Dan Evans and Cam Norrie carved out excellent wins yesterday, over Roberto Bautista Agut and John Isner respectively.
There have been nine GB wins from 11 singles matches so far. Two came from Emma Raducanu and one from Jack Draper, who is looking like one of the sport’s top emerging talents. The world’s best doubles player, Joe Salisbury, is also from the UK.
The British run — perhaps aided by the lively conditions which come with Madrid’s relative altitude — may come to a shuddering halt today.
Yet Murray has already made a considerable statement after the U-turn that has seen him play the clay season after all. His earlyhours win over Denis Shapovalov has earned him a free hit against old foe Djokovic.
‘He’s obviously number one in the world and I’m playing with a metal hip, so I shouldn’t have a chance,’ said Murray.
‘I worked extremely hard in the last five or six weeks to get myself here and it’s a fantastic opportunity to play against him again on a huge court in a big tournament. My movement has been so much better than where it was at the beginning of the year, and it makes a huge difference to my whole game.’
Their last meeting was in the Qatar Open final at the start of January 2017, and thereafter the physical problems began to emerge for the double Wimbledon champion.
After his exhausting surge to the number one ranking in late 2016 he gave himself too little time to recover, with virtually no off-season.
By the early summer his hip problems surfaced, but against Shapovalov his movement looked as good as it has been in nearly five years.
His mindset, all over the place in February, was also spot on. The recent coaching reunion with Ivan Lendl cannot be a coincidence.
As Evans observed of Murray after his own hard-fought 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 win over the Spaniard Bautista Agut: ‘I think his attitude looks like it has been way more positive in the last few weeks. Maybe that’s the work with Ivan and having the tennis in his legs.’
Evans, who fought back from 3-5 down in the decider, now faces world number eight Andrey Rublev. Norrie will take on brilliant young Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, after edging out giant Isner 6-4, 6-7, 6-4.
GB No 1 Norrie was unhappy with the match being scheduled on court four with its small playing area due to the issues of returning Isner’s serve, accusing the tournament of showing ‘disrespect’ to him and his American opponent.