Federer vs Murray

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Can Fed handle Murray's bag of tricks?

Friday, March 20, 2009 | Feedback | Print Entry


Posted by Peter Bodo, TENNIS.com

So far, the early tournaments of 2009 suggest this year will be one of continued transition rather than the status quo, or even radical change, in men's tennis. Basically, the results suggest that everything other than the clay-court titles (for which Rafael Nadal has had something like a "right of first refusal" for a few years now) is up for grabs.



The results in Melbourne confirmed this, and the run-up to the weekend in the desert at the BNP Paribas Open has as well. Nadal is the clear No. 1, but below him, it's a game of musical chairs likely to get more spirited and fast-paced as the next few months unfurl toward Roland Garros.



Thus, you can look at the upcoming Indian Wells semifinal between Roger Federer and Andy Murray as a bellwether match that will suggest just how alertly Federer must glance over his shoulder (at the likes of Murray, Novak Djokovic, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and maybe the redesigned Andy Roddick) even as he's in a dead sprint, trying to catch Nadal.



Murray, you may have noticed, is 5-2 against Federer. Anyone else notice just the wee bit of frost in the comment Federer made after his last match at Indian Wells, as he looked ahead to this semifinal matchup?



"I'm aware that he has beaten me more than I've beaten him, but on big occasions, I think I came through," Federer said. "I have to build on that and make sure I play a tough and good match against him. Anything else is not going to do the job against him."



I wouldn't exactly call that bulletin-board material, but we know the buried message: If I can get myself into a Grand Slam-final frame of mind, you can throw that head-to-head record right out the window.



The only problem with Federer's reasoning is that he's got a pretty narrow definition of "big occasions." For among Murray's wins, three have occurred at the level just below that of majors: two in Masters Series events (Cincinnati and Madrid) and one at last Masters Cup -- the official year-end tour championships and, notionally, the fifth-most important tournament of the year.



So it seems that Murray is more than capable of bringing his A-game to bear on Federer at an A-event, and the relatively slow cement courts at Indian Wells will enable Murray to dig as deep as he wants into his counterpunching, bait-and-switch, table-turning bag of tricks. The guy is remarkably good at luring Federer -- and everyone else -- into what often ends up looking like a much more artfully and programmatically laid trap than you can actually achieve in a liquid game whose closest thing to a set play is the serve-and-volley.



Still, when you look at Federer's enormous skills, his experience and competitive talents, you have to wonder why he has so much trouble with Murray. My theory is that Murray kind of confuses and annoys him by encroaching on turf that everyone else -- most especially Nadal -- concedes to Federer. For one of the distinguishing -- and welcome -- features of Murray's game is that it seems a mite … magical. It's "artistic" and unpredictable. Murray may not move or swing the stick as fluently and effortlessly as Federer, but he often gets to the same place, flummoxing opponents with versatility and skill.



If Murray pulls out the win, there will be that much more evidence that the game is indeed in transition, long past that phase when it was all about Federer, with a side order of Nadal. Maybe even past the phase when it was all about the rivalry of the top two players.

[oliensis]

Just watched Federer vs. Murray.

Federer showed what looked like something close to his A game early in 1st set, through a big chunk of the 2nd set, and very early in the 3rd set...until the moment that Murray fell down with an apparent groin issue. But other than that, he looked worse than I've ever seen him.

I don't know how much his back is bothering him, but it looks clear to me that he's only moving well occasionally. And he's only patient intermittently.

His shot tolerance stinks, esp. on his backhand, but on both sides. Looks mainly like he forgot what got him to where he was. Like he remembers hitting the winners, but not how long and hard one has to work to set up for them.

And he looks like he's playing standing straight up (not bending knees that much) more than he used to. Used to be when he got a high ball, he was so great at digging down into his "load" and exploding up through the stroke. Now he loads less and slaps the ball...esp. on the backhand.

If that's the back talking, then he needs more time off to fix it. Otherwise, it's the first time I've been disgusted w/ him and stopped really rooting for him, as it becomes silly when it feels like I care more than he does.

I wonder if he's hit the point the Borg, McEnroe, Agassi all hit in their mid-to-late 20s. B quit, Mc took time off, A fell to #141 in the rankings. B didn't come back, Mc came back after a break, but was never Slam Final material again...only A worked his way back all the way...and then some.

I hope Federer rediscovers whatever it was that isn't there right now.

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From www.espn.com/tennis

The 27-year-old Federer, whose four-year stint at No. 1 ended last year, made some outstanding shots against Murray, and some awful ones. Inconsistency remains his problem as he tries to fight his way back to the top.

The Swiss star made a whopping 32 unforced errors, including several by clanging routine shots off the frame of his racket. Murray was a model of consistency, scrambling back and forth to keep the ball in play and making just 15 unforced errors.

After Federer came back to win the second set, Murray earned a break in the fourth game of the third to take control. Murray had a scary moment in that game when his feet slipped out from under him and he did the splits while trying to stop, turn and get to a shot behind him. He yelled in pain, but got up off the court a few seconds later and obviously wasn't hampered -- he won the next three points.

"I was worried for him, went down badly, screamed," Federer said. "I was happy to see that he got back up."

Said Murray: "Obviously a bit scared at first, then once I got up and ran around after a couple of points, I knew that it felt OK."

Federer praised Murray for his counterpunching ability.

"He's got great feel, so he's very confident at the moment," the Swiss star said. "He knows he doesn't need to play close to the lines because he knows he can cover the court really well.

"I think that calms him down mentally. I think that's why he's playing so well."

Murray, who already has won at Dubai and Rotterdam this season, said he concentrated on mixing up his pace against Federer.

"If I started trading big groundstrokes with someone like Federer, I think he likes that," he said. "I haven't done it against him and I don't do it against many people. That's my style, very rarely do I lose matches having let the other guy play his natural game."