Murray feels the Djokovic gulf widen

ANDY MURRAY’S efforts at the Shanghai Rolex Masters over the past week may have further consolidated his position as the second-best player in the world, but he leaves China with a reminder that there is much ground to make up on the seemingly unstoppable world No1 Novak Djokovic.

Murray was hailing his stunning victory against Tomas Berdych on Friday as one of his best performances of the year, but he failed to reproduce that high level yesterday in a 6-1, 6-3 semi-final defeat by Djokovic which lasted just 68 minutes.

The Serb now leads the head-to-head record 20-9, with 11 victories in their last 12 meetings on hard courts.

Murray said: ‘I feel like I’ve played many great matches with Novak, a lot of close, physical battles and tough matches, for both of us. But tonight it wasn’t the case.

‘That’s disappointing for me because normally I’ve found a way, even when I haven’t won the match, to have made it difficult and tricky for him. I wasn’t able to do that.’

Murray hit four double faults in the brief opening set, holding his serve just once. He did break at the start of the second, but Djokovic immediately returned the favour.

A sixth double fault gifted Djokovic the break for 3-1 and he cruised to victory from there, a stunning backhand winner on his second match point summing up his night.

‘It was tough,’ brooded Murray. ‘Obviously I’m disappointed with the way I played. I served poorly in the first set especially. You can’t afford to do that against Novak with the way he’s playing just now, the amount of confidence he has in his game, and the conditions over here.

‘I made it extremely difficult for myself. I just couldn’t get myself in. If you show a bit of weakness, the best players obviously can feel it and pounce on it, and are able to play aggressive and run away with the match a little bit.’

Murray’s conqueror will meet Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who beat Rafael Nadal 6-4, 0-6, 7-5, in today’s final.

Expressing satisfaction after his victory yesterday, Djokovic said: ‘I came in from the very first point with the right intensity and played great at a very high level. I had a very high first-serve percentage throughout the entire match, he had a very low one. I think that also made a difference in terms of the scoreline.’