Medvedev too tough for Murray in second round
Hard-hitting top seed Daniil Medvedev was too consistent and powerful for Andy Murray to handle in his 6-4, 6-2 victory on Saturday. Murray is attempting to make a comeback after injuries.
The picture told a thousand words.
After another grueling baseline rally, Murray raced to the far corner for a crosscourt backhand only to see his 6-6 opponent make a surprising foray to the net for a backhand drop volley to earn the decisive break to go up 3-2 in the second set.
Murray, perhaps exhausted and demoralized, fell flat on his back, spread-eagle, as if he was just knocked out by George Foreman rather than world No. 2 Daniil Medvedev in a 6-4, 6-2 second-round loss at the Miami Open on Saturday afternoon.
The first set turned at 1-2 when the top-seeded Medvedev broke Murray’s serve at love. Murray hung tough but couldn’t sniff a break point (all match) on the Russian’s well-disguised serves. Murray got to 4-5, 15-30 but an ace and 116-mph service winner wrapped up the first set. Medvedev won 84 percent of his first serves, while Murray won just 40 percent of his second serves.
“I think today there was some good signs on the court, but the two sort of key things in tennis is serve and return, and I didn’t do either of them particularly well,” said Murray, who received huge ovations from the Stadium Court crowd — including Heat forward Jimmy Butler. “I still felt like in the rallies and stuff I
could hang with him.”
Not really.
Medvedev, 26, is just as consistent as Murray, but hits harder and with more depth. It wasn’t long ago that it was the tireless Brit running his opponents ragged with pinpoint groundstrokes, drop shots and volleys on his way to No. 1 in 2016. Now 34, coming off two hip surgeries, including a full transplant, Murray is early in the second year of his comeback from retirement.
Murray’s court coverage isn’t the same, but at times he makes up for it with his indefatigable fighting spirit, brilliant tennis IQ and his heart of a champion that has helped him win three Grand Slams, two Olympic singles gold medals and 14 Masters 1000s titles, including two in Miami (Key Biscayne in 2009 and 2013).
Because his ranking has slipped to 85th, he often needs wild cards to get into many of the prestigious events, so in many cases he has to face a high seed early in the tournament. Since reaching the final in Sydney (ATP 250) in January, he hasn’t gotten out of the second round in his past five tournaments. In 2021, Murray didn’t pass the second round in 11 of 16 tournaments.
“That’s one of the reasons why obviously it’s important to try and get your ranking up, but at the same time, I have also played enough in the last five or six months, that I’m prepared for that,” said Murray, who hadn’t played this event since 2016. “But my level of tennis is obviously not right now where it needs to be to win matches like that.
“Obviously, it makes it more difficult to have deep runs, but it’s still possible. You need to beat them.”
To that end, Murray has reunited with his coach Ivan Lendl, the eight-time Grand Slam singles champion who guided Murray to all of his major titles. Lendl, wearing a large Stetson hat, was in Murray’s box for the first time since their new agreement.
For health reasons and surface preference, Murray is skipping the claycourt season and will train with Lendl in Orlando for about a month before returning to London to practice for the grasscourt season, his favorite surface on which he won Wimbledon in 2013 and ’16, the last year Lendl coached him.
“I think probably some clarity over the right way to play and the right way to practice,” Murray said of Lendl’s expected contribution. “Hence, one of the reasons why I’m taking a big period of training to try and change some of those things and hopefully get my game into a place where it’s more competitive against the top players again.”
Murray hasn’t beaten any player in the top 4 since November 2016 when he downed thenNo. 2 Novak Djokovic in the finals of the yearending ATP Finals.
Medvedev, who has won one Grand Slam and four Masters titles, needs to better last year’s quarterfinal berth here to wrest back the No. 1 ranking from Djokovic, who hasn’t played since late February because he refuses to get COVID vaccinations.
“[I] definitely want to be back there. It felt good to touch it,” said Medvedev, who was No. 1 for three weeks in March. “It’s something that nobody can take away from me.”
Medvedev believes Murray is on the right path up the ranks.
“Personally, I see him coming back to the top,” he said. “I’m sure that’s why he’s also continuing to play. … He’s an amazing fighter, and I love it.”
American Taylor Fritz, looking to build on his first Masters 1000 title at Indian Wells that boosted his ranking to a careerhigh 13, seemed to be moving well on the ankle he sprained in the semis in a brutal 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 victory over qualifier Mikhail Kukushkin on Stadium Court.
“I found an extra gear in the third set, kicked it up a little bit, hit some big shots on big points and was able to get through it,” Fritz told Tennis Channel.
Fellow American Tommy Paul eked out a 6-4,