Murray proud despite brutal French exit
Andy Murray was proud of his French Open efforts after falling just short against Stan Wawrinka in a brutal semi-final battle.
Murray ended Wawrinka’s reign as champion in the semi-finals 12 months ago but could not engineer a repeat as the Swiss triumphed 6-7 (6/8) 6-3 5-7 7-6 (7/3) 6-1 after four hours and 34 minutes at Roland Garros yesterday.
It was a rollercoaster of a match, with Murray second best for most of the first three sets but somehow emerging two sets to one in front.
He then looked in control of the fourth but it was Wawrinka who dominated the tie-break and by the decider Murray had nothing left.
Wawrinka, who has won all his previous three grand slams finals, will face Rafael Nadal in tomorrow’s final.
Having arrived in Paris with only four wins since February and unsure even whether he would survive one match, Murray could not be too unhappy with his loss.
He said: “I’m proud of the tournament I had. I did well considering. I was one tie-break away from getting to the final when I came in really struggling. So I have to be proud of that.
“Maybe the lack of matches hurt me a little bit in the end. That was a very high-intensity match. A lot of long points.
“When you haven’t been playing loads, four-and-ahalf hours, that can catch up to you a little bit. So I only have myself to blame for that, for the way I played coming into the tournament.
“But I turned my form around really, really well and ended up having a good tournament, all things considered.”
Murray is still not quite at the same level as he was last year, when he played probably his best clay-court match to defeat Wawrinka and then went on to dominate the second half of the season.
He was unable to take the match to his opponent in the same way and for most of the contest it was attack against defence.
But what attack and what defence! Wawrinka smashed 87 winners, mostly off his forehand to start with before the backhand joined the party in the second set.
Murray added: “I lost a little bit of speed on my serve, which wasn’t allowing me to dictate many points. He obviously hit some greats shots in the fifth, but I didn’t keep the score close enough to put him under pressure.
“Physically, I didn’t feel my best at the end. I didn’t have enough weight on my shot.
“My net game was really poor today. That hurt me on a few occasions and at some important moments.”
Wawrinka said of Murray: “Last year he was stronger. He was very aggressive, and he never really let me install my game.
“I think he’s less confident. He played a bit less fast. He was a little more hesitant.”
Spaniard Nadal thumped Dominic Thiem 6-3 6-4 6-0 in the other semi-final.