POSITIVES FOR ANDY IN DEFEAT
IN more than eight hours of tennis inside the Covid 19-proof bubble of Roehampton, Andy Murray did enough to suggest that his story may not be over yet.
Not quite enough to beat world No 28 Dan Evans yesterday, but this event, promoted by his brother Jamie, has shown there is still life in the old scrapper.
Had he just been able to maintain his level a little longer, he might have been facing Kyle Edmund in today’s final of the ‘Battle of the Brits’ at the hermetically-sealed National Tennis Centre.
It was a couple of sloppy forehands and a miraculous half-volley from his successor as British No1 that separated them at the end. Evans survived his opponent’s blistering start to win 1-6, 6-3, 10-8 in a champions tiebreak.
‘In all my matches here my level has dropped off,’ said the 33-yearold Scot. ‘I haven’t been able to sustain it long enough but my game is there. I will get there.’
Having come through four matches without any serious hip issues, Murray will play in today’s third-place play-off and then turn his attention to Washington DC’s Citi Open which starts in mid-August and signals the restart of the ATP Tour. That will be his platform for the US Open — assuming it happens — and he will ignore the smorgasbord of domestic events in the UK now coming up.
He pronounced himself pleased with his return to competitive play for the first time since November, and for a lot of the time he played to a standard that would already qualify him for the top 30. Murray said: ‘Some of the tennis I have played this week has been very encouraging. I just need to play more matches. I’m a bit up and down right now.
‘From a physical perspective I did pretty well. I didn’t feel brilliant after my (third) match against James Ward but I thought I moved pretty well today.
‘I’ve enjoyed playing this event. It’s not the same as playing on the tour, but we will have to play with no fans in the next few events so we will have to get used to that.’
There will not be any of the midmatch interviews that have been an innovation this week, during one of which Murray claimed to have been branded a ‘hacker’ by some of his fellow GB players. Murray has been happy to play himself down in the off-court banter, but his first set yesterday would have graced pretty much anything seen during his career.
Evans described Murray’s play in the opener as ‘pretty flawless’, and was continually driven off the baseline by the potency of his opponent’s serve and groundstrokes.
It is almost three years since he limped off court after losing a Wimbledon quarter-final that was the beginning of his hip woes, and he cannot have played a better set since then.
Evans was so frustrated he cracked his racket and received a token code violation, but was able to turn the tide by securing a break at the start of the second.
As Murray conceded, he was unable to sustain his start, and the stats showed that his speeds on both his serve and his forehand began to come down.
The Scot led 4-1 in the tiebreak before again being overhauled. Whether he still has the capability to maintain peak performance will determine whether or not there is an Indian summer to his career.
In the second semi-final, Edmund edged out Cameron Norrie in a champions tiebreak to triumph 6-7, 6-4, 10-8.
Evans was back on court later with partner Lloyd Glasspool for the doubles final but the pair went down 0-6, 6-2, 10-6 against Jamie Murray and Neal Skupski.