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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20 Jan 2014“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 »In Australian Open
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