Andy Murray and Roger Federer help Davis Cup recover some of its lost sparkle

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After years of head-scratching, the International Tennis Federation has come up with some new-look branding in the hope of revitalising the Davis Cup brand.

The venerable team competition is now appearing on posters as “the World Cup of tennis”, while a promotion entitled “Show Your Colours” is using each team’s flags as a rallying point for fans.

A desperate and underpowered attempt to regain a little of the cup’s lost limelight?

Time will tell, but let us not be too negative. This was already promising to be a good weekend for the competition before a ball had been hit.

For one thing, the return of Andy Murray and Great Britain to the world group has added significantly to its historical resonance.

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Their first-round tie against the US, which started on Friday night when Murray faced Donald Young at San Diego’s Petco Park, is a rematch of the first Davis Cup tie from Boston in 1900, which the hosts won 3-0.

The British team have underperformed for so long that a victory here would be their first in the world group since 1986.

And yet, only eight years before that, John Lloyd and Buster Mottram faced John McEnroe and his fellow Americans in another epic: the 1978 final at Palm Springs.

Perhaps it is jingoistic to suggest that the resurgence of Great Britain – which has been powered by some inspired selections by team captain Leon Smith and an array of strong doubles players – benefits the whole competition.

But everyone loves to beat the Brits, in any sport. It is just that, in tennis, those victories are slightly less easy to come by than they used to be.

Meanwhile, Switzerland’s attempt to land a first Davis Cup title has been boosted by Roger Federer’s decision to participate in the first match of the year.

Normally, Federer leaves Stan Wawrinka – the Australian Open champion – in charge and rides in at the last gasp to head off relegation in the September play-off.

This year, though, Federer seems to have been inspired by the possibility of actually winning the competition.

And it is hard to see who might stop the Swiss champions if both stay fit and available throughout the season.

Until yesterday, the last nation to combine two individual grand slam winners was Spain, which brought together Rafael Nadal and Juan Carlos Ferrero in 2005.

After Nadal came within a match of adding a 14th grand slam title to his tally in Australia a week ago, it is easy to see why Federer might want to shore up the only gap in his otherwise impeccable CV: the lack of a Davis Cup title (Nadal, by comparison, has four.)

Success in the final in 10 months’ time would certainly add another wrinkle to the ongoing “greatest of all time” debate.

But whatever Federer’s motivations, it was encouraging to see the most lauded figure in the sport return to the fray against Serbia on Friday, easing past Ilija Bozoljac in straight sets in Novi Sad.

The only shame is that he will not be playing Novak Djokovic on Sunday, for the world No2 has opted for a skiing trip to his childhood home of Kopaonik instead.

Here we see the chief difficulty of team competitions in men’s tennis.

For the best part of a decade, the sport’s narrative has revolved around the crunching collisions between the super-elite in the final stages of grand slams.

Yet when was the last time this happened in the Davis Cup?

The same problem applies to the proposed International Tennis Premier League, a plan to create star-studded teams based in four Asian cities, which is being assembled by former doubles champion Mahesh Bhupathi.

You could see Murray or Djokovic agreeing to hang out in Singapore or Kuala Lumpur for a couple of weeks in December; they would be doing warm-weather training somewhere else at that time of the year anyway.

But it is hard to see them clocking up any extra miles by making the journeys to away trips, which would forestall the tastiest match-ups.

The variety and passion of the Davis Cup make it an important cog in the calendar, even now. Y

et until the big names start to “show their colours” more often, the competition will continue to struggle for airtime.

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Andy Murray gets Great Britain off to a smooth start against USA in the Davis Cup

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Andy Murray played hardball in the baseball stadium on Friday night, as he got Great Britain off to the smoothest of starts in this intriguing Davis Cup tie.

At Petco Park, the home of the San Diego Padres, Murray demolished Donald Young of the USA in just 98 minutes: 6-1, 6-2, 6-3.

Murray had lost to Young before, in one of his spring slumps after the Australian Open, but there was little chance of a repeat here once he had found his feet on a slippery but slow-paced clay court.

The match was competitive for around five minutes, which was about as long as it took Murray to survive a tense opening service game that featured two deuces. After that, he cranked up his forehand and started playing some high-level tennis.

For a man who has never been comfortable on clay courts in the past, it was an encouraging display. Realistically, Great Britain's prospects of winning this tie depend on Murray being able to deliver three points – one of them with the help of Colin Fleming in today's doubles.

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It is thus crucial for Britain's greatest asset to conserve energy over the weekend, and yesterday he was magnificently economical. Young could not handle Murray's accuracy and authority, despite enthusiastic support from the 4,000-odd fans at Petco Park and pep talks from his team captain Jim Courier, whose natty grey suit made him resemble one of the Premier League's more elegant continental managers.

A left-hander ranked No. 79 in the world, Young is perhaps not best suited to playing on a surface as slow as this one. The USA have not hosted a home tie on clay for more than 20 years, but they had hoped to have John Isner – the world No. 13 and a proficient dirtballer – to lead their team.

Unfortunately Isner was ruled out by an ankle injury and they have ended up with Sam Querrey – who was due to face British No. 2 James Ward in the second match yesterday – plus the erratic and unpredictable Young. As a man who likes to come forward, and has more touch in his hands than power in his groundstrokes, Young would surely have preferred a slick hard court.

It is possible that Young could end up playing a decisive anchor leg in this tie on Sunday afternoon, when it will be his turn to face Ward. The Briton is ranked 96 places below him but he will have observed Young's tendency to throw in a duff game amid some bold stroke play. It took the

American until midway through the third set to even earn a break point, and then he was unable to convert.

Despite Murray's fine start, he and the British team have not been delighted with the quality of a court that was laid only a couple of weeks ago. Clay courts normally take at least a year to bed down, so creating one from scratch is never quite the same as going out to play at Monte Carlo or Roland Garros.

The top layer of granules is so loose that the ballboys were struggling to keep their footing. Murray and Young were much steadier, having spent the past week getting the hang of it, and indeed Murray moved – and slid – with impressive control and speed. But he did call the chair umpire, Henrik Molina, down to look at a dicey patch late in the first set.

Meanwhile, Roger Federer's surprise decision to play in Switzerland's first-round tie in Novi Sad, Serbia's second city, was rewarded yesterday with a straight-sets victory over Ilija Bozoljac. The only shame is that he will not be playing Novak Djokovic on Sunday, for the world No. 2 has opted for a skiing trip to his childhood home of Kopaonik instead.

It is not common to see Federer involved in the Davis Cup at this early stage of the season. Normally he leaves his old mate Stan Wawrinka in charge and rides in at the last gasp to head off relegation in the

September play-off. But Wawrinka's recent flowering must have encouraged him to think that Switzerland could lift the Cup this year for the first time in their history.

Andy Murray

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Andy Murray aims to deliver for Great Britain in Davis Cup

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When Andy Murray goes out to face the USA's Donald Young tonight, in the opening rubber of a fascinating Davis Cup tie, he will be playing at the most quintessentially American venue you could imagine: a 40,000-seater baseball ground entitled Petco Park.

Murray – who caused a short-lived media storm on Wednesday with a fake wedding announcement – is often described as left-field, but has never actually played there before. Mind you, the whole experience of contesting a world group match will be a novelty for a British team who have not scored a victory at this elite level for almost 30 years.

Murray's match against Young is due to start at 7pm GMT at this stadium within a stadium. Temporary stands have been set up to the west of the court, reducing capacity to a cosy 8,000, while the east side is overlooked by the soaring bleachers frequented by fans of the San Diego Padres. It might sound like a dog's breakfast, but the US Tennis Association should actually be commended for creating a dramatic and unusual venue.

So what of the tennis? The British team's prospects are certainly stronger than they were 24 hours ago, given that John Isner, the world No 13, has been ruled out with an ankle injury.

"We've got a chance of winning this match even though the US probably go in as strong favourites," said Murray admitted yesterday, after attending the draw ceremony at Balboa Park, adjacent to San Diego's world-famous zoo.

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In all probability, Murray will still have to win both his singles matches – as well as tomorrow's doubles encounter with the world-leading Bryan brothers – if Great Britain are to progress to the quarter-final stage of the competition in April.

On the face of things, though, the absence of Isner would seem to lighten his load. The biggest concern for Britain's team captain Leon Smith was that Murray would become embroiled in a series of exhausting four- or five-set matches – a particular worry in the light of his painstaking return from back surgery in September.

Of course, Murray could still find it difficult against Young – a left-hander ranked No. 79 – in tonight's opening match, especially on the slippery clay court that seems to have been specifically prepared to make him uncomfortable. But at least it is easier to return serve against Young – a relatively diminutive tennis player at under 6ft tall – than it would have been against the 6ft 9in Isner.

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Wimbledon wedding just a wind-up, confesses Andy Murray

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A quiet morning for the British Davis Cup team in San Diego was enlivened on Wednesday when Andy Murray woke up early – probably as a result of post-Melbourne jet-lag – and decided to take part in a Twitter question-and-answer session.

As usual, Murray’s answers were heavily infused with his dry sense of humour. Yet that did not prevent an ironic comment about his wedding plans from provoking a burst of excitement on social media, websites and rolling news channels.

Asked by one fan: “When are you going to get married

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Andy Murray fears 'inhumane' heat at Australian Open could kill someone

Briton accuses organisers of putting lives at risk as matches are forced to go ahead in 108F heat By Simon Briggs, Tennis Correspondent, in Melbourne

12:01AM GMT 15 Jan 2014

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Australian Open 2014, Andy Murray v Vincent Millot: live

Follow build-up and game-by-game commentary of the Australian Open second-round match between Andy Murray and Vincent Millot at Melbourne Park on Thursday January 16, 2014.

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Andy Murray digs deep to win 23 consecutive points and defeat Vincent Millot in second round of Australian Open

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There was a bagpiper out on the banks of the Yarra River this morning, accompanied a cardboard cutout of Andy Murray. But it was a long wait for both of them before the real Murray finally fought his way into the third round of the Australian Open at two minutes to midnight, local time.

Part of the delay was caused by a couple of long women’s matches on Rod Laver Arena – Maria Sharapova spent 3hr 28min over hers – and the closing of the roof in mid-afternoon when the “extreme heat policy” had to be applied.

Did Murray also allow himself to be kept out on court for longer than was strictly necessary? A harsh critic might say so. He was playing the lowest-ranked player left in the draw, world No 267 Vincent Millot of France, and could have been expected to breeze through in about 90 minutes.

But then Millot turned out to be a Jekyll-and-Hyde sort of tennis player: woeful one minute and brilliant the next. The third set was a real head-scratcher as Millot won four games in a row to go to 5-1. He even had a set point in the next game, but Murray roused himself to construct a fine point that he clinched with a backhand winner.

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This was the start of a 23-point unbroken sequence that made you wonder if Murray was trying to beat some kind of midnight curfew, as he famously did at Wimbledon against Marcos Baghdatis a couple of years ago (although that one was only 11pm).

“It was 6-5 when I went to serve for it, and someone shouted out, ‘You won 19 in a row,’” Murray explained afterwards. “I would say that's probably the most I'd ever won in my career by far.”

Murray’s bare statistics were not impressive, by his high standards, as he committed 31 unforced errors to place alongside his 25 winners. But he still powered through to the next round by a 6-2, 6-2, 7-5 margin, taking 2hrs 1min, and can now look forward to a meeting with old foe Feliciano Lopez on Saturday.

“Today I found tricky,” said Murray afterwards. “I found the opponent tricky. I found the conditions tricky. And I maybe didn't adjust as well as I would have liked. But I did okay.

“I played well in my first match; today, not so well. That's what it's going to be like for me now,” added Murray, who is coming back from a four-month lay-off following spinal surgery. “I'm going to have ups and downs. I just have to get through them and the consistency will come.”

Millot had joked before the match that he it was good of the organisers to jock Roger Federer off Rod Laver Arena to make room for him.

Yet it was also a strange call, given that he has only won one grand slam match in his career – Tuesday’s meeting with Wayne Odesnik. How would he react to playing in front of 15,000 people on one of the greatest stages in tennis?

Not brilliantly, was the answer after the first three games, as Millot coughed up no fewer than 10 unforced errors. One regulation forehand bounced before it reached the net.

But things improved from there, or at least became more competitive, as Murray rather lost concentration and began to play some indifferent tennis himself. A pair of double-faults helped Millot get off the mark by breaking serve in the fourth game.

The Frenchman’s most skilful early touch was the little backheel he played off a loose ball, passing it neatly to a bellboy, in keeping with his background as a potential professional footballer. (His father played for St Etienne alongside Michel Platini and his uncle won three caps for the French national side).

After coming through qualifying, he has played a lot of tennis in the last week, so it was not hugely surprising when Millot took an injury time-out late in the second set to deal with a sore calf. He had also been doing a lot of running. It often felt as if Murray was standing in the centre of the baseline and making him perform shuttles to left and right like in a drill.

But then, in the third set, a match broke out. What had the trainer given Millot? He decided to swing for everything and for a 20 minute spell his racket had the Midas touch. There were aces and return winners and some scorching drives down the line off both wings.

Murray finally broke back to move to 2-5, and then the magic dried up as abruptly as it had arrived. “He had been stepping right up to the baseline and hitting winners, basically,” Murray said afterwards.

“He’s ranked I think around 270 in the world. It shows what depth there is in the game just now and I thought he played a very good match.”

Murray also gave an update on his brother Jamie, who had suffered from heat stroke after playing – and winning - a doubles match before play was suspended at 1.52pm.

“He wasn’t in a great way,” Murray said. “It’s never happened to him before, having cramps like that either. When one part of your body goes and then, when you move, the opposite muscle goes. I don't know how dangerous they are, but they're very, very uncomfortable. When it happens the first time, it's pretty scary.

“So we just tried to make sure someone was with him throughout the day. You know, he drunk loads when he got off the court, and was finding it quite hard to eat. Hopefully he'll be fine tomorrow.”

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Australian Open 2014: 'I'm just glad to win and get off humid court', says Andy Murray

Andy Murray says that he is glad to reach the third round of the Australian Open and get off the humid court as the heatwave continues in Melbourne 7:51PM GMT 16 Jan 2014

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Andy Murray races into fourth round of Australian Open with straight-sets win over Feliciano Lopez

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Andy Murray maintained his perfect record against Feliciano Lopez to reach the second week of the Australian Open without dropping a set.

The fourth seed had beaten Lopez in all seven of their previous meetings but this was seen as the first real test of Murray's form following back surgery.

It was a test he passed with flying colours in Melbourne, playing a superb tie-break at the end of a tight first set and then pulling away to win 7-6 (7/2) 6-4 6-2.

And Murray will be a hot favourite to reach the quarter-finals given he plays 119th-ranked lucky loser Stephane Robert next, in round four.

The Scot said: "It's been a good start. It was very tricky conditions the first couple of matches with the heat but today was beautiful conditions to play in.

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"We get to play in front of full crowd when it's like this so it was a great atmosphere. I don't know why but every time I've come here since I was 18 I've had great support."

Despite his great record against Lopez, Murray had needed almost four hours to see off the Spaniard in their last meeting at the US Open in 2012.

And this time it was not an auspicious start for the fourth seed, who lost four straight points to drop serve in the opening game, but he retrieved the break straight away.

The 40C temperatures had disappeared, much to the relief of most players, but cool weather was not what necessarily what Murray wanted as he gets his body used to playing best-of-five-set matches again.

The Scot had several chances to move a break ahead in the sixth game but Lopez came up with good serves every time.

Murray looked frustrated as Lopez levelled at 5-5, and his mood was not helped when more big serving helped the Spaniard save two set points and force a tie-break.

But Lopez was hanging on and he was outplayed in the tie-break, Murray stringing together a succession of good, aggressive points.

He brought up four more set points with a forehand winner and clinched it with another forehand that Lopez could not get back.

Murray has an excellent record against left-handers, which he attributes largely to having grown up playing against his brother Jamie.

Aside from Rafael Nadal, who has beaten him 13 times in 18 meetings, Murray has now only failed to win three times against left-handers in 50 matches.

He made the perfect start to the second set with an immediate break of the Lopez serve, the Spaniard seeming to suffer a hangover from losing the opener.

Both men held serve relatively comfortably for the rest of the set, which suited Murray just fine as he took it on his first chance, a HawkEye challenge failing to save Lopez.

Murray had won the first two sets against the Spaniard in New York as well, only to find himself embroiled in a near four-hour battle, but the chances of that happening again were remote, even more so when Lopez dumped the ball into the net to drop his serve again at the start of the third set.

The 32-year-old appeared to have resigned himself to his fate and Murray, who was playing an extremely solid match, broke again to lead 4-1.

That quickly became 5-1 and the Scot clinched victory on his first match point, celebrating with an understated fist pump.

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Australian Open 2014: Andy Murray strolls into fourth round

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Andy Murray continued his domination of left-handers by swatting aside Feliciano Lopez 7-6 (7-2), 6-4, 6-2 to reach the Australian Open fourth round.

Murray's win over the big-serving Spaniard was his 14th in succession against southpaws and set-up a last 16 showdown with 'lucky loser' and Frenchman Stephane Robert.

The 33-year-old Robert is ranked 119th in the world and made the main draw only after German Philipp Kohlschreiber pulled out at the start of the tournament.

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Stéphane Robert targets Goliath Andy Murray in Australian Open fourth round

Lucky dip: Stéphane Robert organises nightly casino visits, reads Dostoevsky novels and practices meditation in his hostel as alternative preparation for his fourth round Andy Murray challenge Photo: ACTION IMAGES

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Australian Open 2014: 'Dom the bom' Inglot still furious a decade after failing to beat Andy Murray

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Ask a casual tennis fan to identify the five Britons who entered the men’s doubles here, and the one most likely to draw blank looks would be Dominic “Dom The Bomb” Inglot.

Jamie Murray is a member of tennis’s first family, Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins have been Davis Cup regulars, and Jonny Marray won Wimbledon in 2012. Whereas Inglot’s biggest claim to fame used to be that he acted as Paul Bettany’s body double in a Hollywood film, also called Wimbledon.

But all that will change, in time, if Inglot – a 6ft 4in behemoth with a 140mph serve – continues to be the last man standing in these events. It is now a year since any of the other British men outperformed him at a grand slam.

Having come into the Australian Open as British No 1 in doubles – a title he claimed for the first time just over a week ago — Inglot and Filipino partner Treat Huey scored a fine win on Sunday over seventh seeds Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi. They will play in the quarter-finals tonight.

Asked yesterday whether the No 1 ranking was important to him, the ever-chatty Inglot replied: “Absolutely. I’m going to be using that when I go back to the bars and try to find girls.” Will that work? “I hope so! I’ve never had the opportunity before unless I lied, and some girls are good at reading a lie.”

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“I’m really pumped about it,” he said, with a straighter face. “It’s definitely one of the things you want growing up, you want to win slams, represent your country in Davis Cup, win Olympics and be your country’s No 1 player.”

Inglot could be an outside shot for Davis Cup selection when the team to face the USA is announced on Tuesday, though he admits that Fleming is likely to be ahead of him in the queue. “It’s not just about playing well, but playing well together,” he said. “Andy

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Australian Open 2014, Andy Murray v Stéphane Robert: live

Follow build-up and game-by-game commentary of the Australian Open fourth-round match between Andy Murray and Stéphane Robert at Melbourne Park on Monday January 20, 2014

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Andy Murray moves into Australian Open 2014 quarter-finals with four-sets win over Stéphane Robert

British number one Andy Murray drops a set for the first time at this year's Australian Open but progresses with a 6-1, 6-2, 6-7, 6-2 fourth-round victory over Frenchman Stéphane Robert

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Watch Australian Open highlights: Andy Murray beats Stéphane Robert to move into quarter finals

Watch highlights of Andy Murray's victory over French qualifier Stéphane Robert in the fourth round of the Australian Open 11:10AM GMT 20 Jan 2014

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Australian Open 2014: Roger Federer to face Andy Murray in quarter final after defeating Jo-Wilfred Tsonga

Class act: former world number one Roger Federer looked very good against Jo-Wilfred Tsonga, and managed to keep the Frenchman's power at bay Photo: AP

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Australian Open 2014: Andy Murray v Roger Federer, first of the year's 'superclashes'

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What did Stefan Edberg say to Roger Federer before he took the court on Monday?

Something to the effect of “Courage, mon brave,” judging by the way Federer kept rushing the net like a dervish.

The question is whether he will be as bold – or as clinical – against Andy Murray on Wednesday.

There is no such thing as a dull meeting between Federer and Murray, but this one promises to be especially fascinating.

If the 2014 Australian Open has been the tournament of the supercoaches, this will be its first superclash.

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This quarter-final might almost sound like a reconstruction staged by a historical society, given that Edberg and Ivan Lendl faced off no fewer than four times in Melbourne, withhonours shared at two wins apiece.

In broad terms, their modern charges look to follow the same patterns: Federer coming forward to volley like a more debonair Edberg, Murray pursuing the “power baseline” game that Lendl all but invented.

But if the outline might be familiar, the staging will be completely different. You might as well compare West Side Story to Romeo and Juliet.

Tennis culture evolves, and the best players evolve faster than the rest.

Indeed both Federer and Murray have moved on significantly since they last faced each other, in the semi-final of this event a year ago.

Federer has not just hired Edberg, but fixed his back trouble and switched to a larger, 98-inch racket, which has been working supremely well for him over the past week.

Lendl and company might not want to study Monday’s 6-3, 7-5, 6-4 victory over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga too closely, for fear of becoming demoralised.

It felt like a flashback to Federer’s salad days.

As for Murray, he has not just won Wimbledon but addressed a chronic injury of his own by having an irregular piece of bone shaved off one of his vertebrae.

He has returned to the tour with more mobility than we have seen from him in at least 18 months, particularly on his double-fisted backhand, which is now smoother and more adaptable. The downside is a lack of matches.

We saw a hint of this on Monday when Murray faced Stéphane Robert, the first lucky loser to reach the fourth round of the Australian Open, and a man who belongs on a different plane of the sport.

As Murray said: “I dominated 95 per cent of the match.” But the other five per cent arrived at an inconvenient moment.

At the end of the third set, Murray had two match points on his own serve at 5-4, and then two more in the tie-break, but allowed them all to slip away – an aberration that cost him an extra half-hour on court.

It was a good thing that in the fourth set his superior conditioning kicked in, as Robert started cramping and Murray – who had comprehensively destroyed one of his rackets just before it started – eased to a 6-1, 6-2, 6-7, 6-2 victory.

He still spent only 2hr 42min on Hisense Arena (half an hour less than Rafael Nadal needed to subdue Kei Nishikori in three sets on Monday), so that outbreak of ‘Fergie time’ was hardly a disaster.

But it was hard to imagine a fully match-tight Murray wasting so many opportunities.

Unless, of course, he happened to be playing Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon final.

“I can’t honestly say my expectations are as high as if I’d been playing for the last four months,” Murray admitted.

“It’s been a good effort to get to the quarter-finals of a slam this soon after back surgery.

But now I’m not far away from winning the event. Anyone that’s in the quarters is close.”

Murray is covering all eventualities there.

But then, it has been hard to gauge the level of his tennis – probably even for Murray himself – because of the eccentric cast list thrown up by the draw.

Uniquely, in his history of 32 grand slams, he has faced three opponents outside the top 100.

While Murray was happy to ease his way into the tournament, this was not perhaps the ideal preparation for facing Federer – a shot-making genius whose new racket appears to have shaved at least a couple of years off his age.

“Roger took the ball very early today, and he was always taking my time away,” a chastened Tsonga said. “Everything was going quick. He was playing unbelievable.”

The odds must incline towards Federer, which is not something you would have anticipated when he blew up so horrendously against Tommy Robredo at the US Open.

That was only four months ago, and yet this great magician has shown an ability to regenerate that would impress Doctor Who.

Expect him to step into the court against Murray’s second serve – a long-time weakness that had improved significantly under Lendl’s guidance, but appears to have regressed again during Murray’s time off.

Against Robert, Murray averaged 82mph on the second serve, and won 52 per cent of the points.

Federer’s equivalent figures were 94mph and 69 per cent, even though he was facing a much stronger opponent.

“I like playing the best,” Federer said, sounding more bullish than he has for a while.

“And you need to take it to them. You need to play aggressive against the top guys, me included.

"You don’t want to wait for stuff to happen. I think that usually is good for success.”

Murray’s record against Federer is a mixed one: 11 wins from 20 meetings, but only one win from four meetings in the grand slams.

That came here, in last year’s semi-final, when Federer became so frustrated that he blurted an unprintable epithet in Murray’s direction.

Since then, the great man has been short of form and certainty.

But whoever wins, the conclusion will be the same. “He’s back.”

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Andy Murray v Roger Federer: Ivan Lendl says British No 1 is ready to go 'toe-to-toe' with big guns

Up for the fight: Andy Murray faces Roger Federer for a place in the semi-finals at Melbourne Park Photo: EPA By Telegraph Sport, and agencies

1:13PM GMT 21 Jan 2014

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Andy Murray v Roger Federer preview: Australian Open quarter-final sees rivalries renewed with Lendl v Edberg

On Wednesday morning, two giants of the game - Ivan Lendl and Stefan Edberg - will take their places on Rod Laver Arena while their charges prepare to battle it out

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Andy Murray beaten by Roger Federer in Australian Open quarter-finals as Swiss sets up Rafael Nadal semi-final

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An exhausted Andy Murray saw his Australian Open dream fade away on Wednesday night, as he was unable to match a classy performance from a revitalised Roger Federer.

This tournament has been a story of near-misses for Murray in the past, but 2014 had seemed to offer possibilities when Novak Djokovic went out in the quarter-final and Rafael Nadal developed a blister on the palm of his serving hand.

Yet Federer was too strong, closing out a 6-3, 6-4, 6-7, 6-3 victory with an ace to reach his 11th consecutive semi-final in Melbourne. Afterwards, Federer suggested that “Andy might have been carrying something,” based on the way Murray lost pace – both around the court and on his serve – as the match went on.

“My serve slowed down a bit in the fourth set,” Murray admitted in the interview room, “especially the first of couple points when I was getting up after the change of ends. But I've come a long way in four months. Obviously right now I'm very disappointed.

“There's maybe some things I would have done a bit differently if I was ever to have surgery again. But it's the first time I ever went through something like that. I don't know how many players have come back from surgery and won the first grand slam back. It’s very unlikely to happen.

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“A lot of work went into this slam compared with other ones where you have a few weeks to prepare. This time I had a long time to prepare, maybe just not enough matches.”

Murray must be cursing his luck that he never ran into Federer during the great man’s form slump in the latter part of last year. Instead, he came up against a man reborn, a shot-making genius whose new 98-inch racket has transformed his game like a magic wand.

Federer was mesmerising in the first two sets as he served with dead-eyed precision, drifted into the net with the stealth of an assassin and coughed up none of the cheap errors that had characterised his play last season.

Murray played some strong tennis himself – perhaps not on a par with the inspiration he delivered at Wimbledon seven months ago but still solid by any normal standard. And yet he did not earn a single break point until the end of the third set, a remarkable statistic for a man who normally returns so well.

It was only at the moment of last resort that Murray roused himself. He was broken in the ninth game of the third set with the help of a controversial pick-up by Federer that flew over his head at the net. A slow-motion replay revealed that the ball had bounced twice, just a fraction before Federer made contact with it.

At the next changeover, Murray got stuck into umpire Pascale Maria for the error, and Maria seemed to be asking whether he wanted to call the supervisor. Instead he came out fuelled by a grievance and finally earned a break – even as Federer was serving for the match – to help force the set into a tie-break.

Federer had to put up with more frustration as Murray saved two match points, coming back from 6-4 down in the tie-break to take it 8-6 and take the contest into a fourth set.

The pace of play slowed down a little now, as Federer started showing signs of tension and Murray clearly began to struggle with his body. In the eighth game, Murray muffed three consecutive forehands to go 0-40 down, and though he summoned up a couple more big serves, he could not stave off the inevitable for long.

“Roger started off the match playing great, great tennis,” said Murray. “He plays a pretty high tempo, so the points are fairly quick‑fire. The ball's coming at you quickly. As much as I would have liked to have returned better, he served very well.

“I changed my tactics a little bit, started playing a little bit more aggressive, and that was maybe my undoing at the end, because I really started going for my shots to get myself back into the match. When I got broken in that fourth set, I went for three balls. Maybe one or two of them weren't there to be hit.”

Federer was slick and confident enough to raise real optimism that he might be able to challenge Rafael Nadal, his greatest nemesis, in Friday’s semi-final. Murray tried to unpick his backhand side but it was rock solid, whether on the slice or the topspin drive.

Murray and his camp must have expected that Federer would win most of the shorter points. Federer is so good at the one-two punch – a big serve followed by the scything forehand winner.

What might have surprised them was the way Murray was unable to get any purchase in the longer rallies. Federer moved with ease and grace along the baseline and timed his sallies to the net with total authority. His defence has rarely looked better.

It was a masterpiece of tactics as well as execution, and suggested that the input of Stefan Edberg has been as much of a factor in Federer’s vastly improved performances at this tournament as the new Wilson racket.

 Australian OpenSport »Tennis »Andy Murray »Roger Federer »Simon Briggs »

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