Andy Murray snatches dramatic Wimbledon quarter-final win
4 Juli 2013
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Andy Murray had been behind in
the match all the way until the final game, which arrived after three
hours and 20 minutes of play. Photograph: Jonathan Hordle/Rex Features
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The Guardian - In the end it was all a bit like old times as Andy Murray beat Fernando Verdasco over five initially sleepy, progressively fevered and ultimately rather wild and unbound sets on Wimbledon's Centre Court, coming from two sets down to complete a giddily received quarter-final victory.
With Murray serving for the match in front of a royal box containing Sir Alex Ferguson – who might have thought he'd escaped this kind of thing – there were screeches and even screams from a gurglingly partisan crowd.
Murray had been behind in the match all the way until the final game, which arrived after three hours and 20 minutes of desperate rearguard tennis. A semi-final against Poland's Jerzy Janowicz awaits on Friday. But only, you suspect, after a stiff protein shake or two and perhaps a rather fretful night's sleep.
For all the various shocks of this year's championships there had been a sense of rather eerily well-modulated calm in Murray's progress through the opening rounds. Of course, it couldn't last: for so long Centre Court has been a place of frothingly shrill sporting theatre when a British player is in action and, in many ways, the dramatic ebb and flow of Murray's victory here was a thrilling return to more uncertain times.
In mid-career, the Scot has matured into a brilliantly focused athlete, a most untypically unflawed British sporting hero, who seemed to have left behind for good these moments of unscripted near disaster. Or so it seemed until about 5pm on Wednesday afternoon, at which point Murray found himself stalking Centre Court in a state of disbelief at another volley prodded into the net with all the certainty of a man reaching for a light switch in the dark.
After an hour-and-a-half of bafflingly undercooked grass court tennis, Britain's best hope of a men's title in 70-odd years was two sets down and on his way to unscripted defeat at the hands of the world No54.
Perhaps Murray's progress to date had simply been too serene. Certainly it was a surprise to see Centre Court only half full at the start and the royal box almost entirely empty. Although in truth not that much of a surprise, as this is often the case in the mid-afternoon lull, the lure of the catered lounge and the brasserie table too strong for those who have come to see a lot of Wimbledon and, in between, a little tennis.
Perhaps for the first time the home support may have become a little blase about a domestic quarter-final, focusing already on the prospect of a Murray final against the World No1 Novak Djokovic on Sunday.
It all started so calmly too as Verdasco kicked off with a double fault and then followed it with an ace. The Spaniard is that kind of player, a periodically thrilling left-hander with something rakish in his on-court manner, the bravura backhand wind-up with its cute little delay at the top of its arc, as though savouring for just a moment the severity of his own shot-making.
With the first set drifting towards what seemed likely to be a match-shaping tie break, a startlingly fine whipped in-out forehand winner gave the Spaniard his first set point pretty much out of nowhere. A Murray double fault followed and suddenly the set was gone, to a whisper of surprise around a Centre Court that, for the first time, had begun to shift in its seat and blink a little, perplexed at this most unexpected turn of events.
Murray seemed to be on the verge of rousing himself in the second set as he broke the Verdasco serve but that old, rarely-glimpsed sluggishness was still there, the drooping body language, the sense of Murray lugging his beefed-up physique around with him rather sulkily: those huge, trunk-like legs, the slabbed chest topped with its still rather small and boyish head.
Still Verdasco's whiplash knockout forehand kept snaking out at apposite moments. A pair of horribly limp Murray forehands into the net followed and suddenly it was 5-3 to the Spaniard in the second set and cries of "Vamos Nando" were ringing around an arena that had, by now become a rather fidgety full house.
Centre Court tried its best, even offering a standing ovation after one stunning rally complete with chalk dust, lunges, groans and even competing mid-point cheers and shushes. Still the British No1 seemed a little beside himself, shoulders slumping as the second set disappeared as the first had, in a rush. At which point, two sets up, the Spaniard blinked for the first time.
Verdasco lacks nothing in talent, but clearly he does lack something: eight career titles is a meagre reward for such a thrilling talent and there was an abrupt collapse as Murray surged, hitting freely and even angrily to take the set 6-1 and then stretching the match out into a fifth with a thrillingly muscular overhead winner to take the fourth set.
Suddenly Wimbledon's entire revamped central megadrome was on its feet, breathing out for the first time after two hours of anxiety gave way to that old familiar screeching wall of noise. The final set was close but, with Verdasco looking weary, Murray broke and served out for the match.
In an echo of last year's Olympic final on the same court, the crowd chanted his name at the end, a rather clinching public embrace for an SW19 audience that has, in the past, been rather more muted in its affections.
With Murray serving for the match in front of a royal box containing Sir Alex Ferguson – who might have thought he'd escaped this kind of thing – there were screeches and even screams from a gurglingly partisan crowd.
Murray had been behind in the match all the way until the final game, which arrived after three hours and 20 minutes of desperate rearguard tennis. A semi-final against Poland's Jerzy Janowicz awaits on Friday. But only, you suspect, after a stiff protein shake or two and perhaps a rather fretful night's sleep.
For all the various shocks of this year's championships there had been a sense of rather eerily well-modulated calm in Murray's progress through the opening rounds. Of course, it couldn't last: for so long Centre Court has been a place of frothingly shrill sporting theatre when a British player is in action and, in many ways, the dramatic ebb and flow of Murray's victory here was a thrilling return to more uncertain times.
In mid-career, the Scot has matured into a brilliantly focused athlete, a most untypically unflawed British sporting hero, who seemed to have left behind for good these moments of unscripted near disaster. Or so it seemed until about 5pm on Wednesday afternoon, at which point Murray found himself stalking Centre Court in a state of disbelief at another volley prodded into the net with all the certainty of a man reaching for a light switch in the dark.
After an hour-and-a-half of bafflingly undercooked grass court tennis, Britain's best hope of a men's title in 70-odd years was two sets down and on his way to unscripted defeat at the hands of the world No54.
Perhaps Murray's progress to date had simply been too serene. Certainly it was a surprise to see Centre Court only half full at the start and the royal box almost entirely empty. Although in truth not that much of a surprise, as this is often the case in the mid-afternoon lull, the lure of the catered lounge and the brasserie table too strong for those who have come to see a lot of Wimbledon and, in between, a little tennis.
Perhaps for the first time the home support may have become a little blase about a domestic quarter-final, focusing already on the prospect of a Murray final against the World No1 Novak Djokovic on Sunday.
It all started so calmly too as Verdasco kicked off with a double fault and then followed it with an ace. The Spaniard is that kind of player, a periodically thrilling left-hander with something rakish in his on-court manner, the bravura backhand wind-up with its cute little delay at the top of its arc, as though savouring for just a moment the severity of his own shot-making.
With the first set drifting towards what seemed likely to be a match-shaping tie break, a startlingly fine whipped in-out forehand winner gave the Spaniard his first set point pretty much out of nowhere. A Murray double fault followed and suddenly the set was gone, to a whisper of surprise around a Centre Court that, for the first time, had begun to shift in its seat and blink a little, perplexed at this most unexpected turn of events.
Murray seemed to be on the verge of rousing himself in the second set as he broke the Verdasco serve but that old, rarely-glimpsed sluggishness was still there, the drooping body language, the sense of Murray lugging his beefed-up physique around with him rather sulkily: those huge, trunk-like legs, the slabbed chest topped with its still rather small and boyish head.
Still Verdasco's whiplash knockout forehand kept snaking out at apposite moments. A pair of horribly limp Murray forehands into the net followed and suddenly it was 5-3 to the Spaniard in the second set and cries of "Vamos Nando" were ringing around an arena that had, by now become a rather fidgety full house.
Centre Court tried its best, even offering a standing ovation after one stunning rally complete with chalk dust, lunges, groans and even competing mid-point cheers and shushes. Still the British No1 seemed a little beside himself, shoulders slumping as the second set disappeared as the first had, in a rush. At which point, two sets up, the Spaniard blinked for the first time.
Verdasco lacks nothing in talent, but clearly he does lack something: eight career titles is a meagre reward for such a thrilling talent and there was an abrupt collapse as Murray surged, hitting freely and even angrily to take the set 6-1 and then stretching the match out into a fifth with a thrillingly muscular overhead winner to take the fourth set.
Suddenly Wimbledon's entire revamped central megadrome was on its feet, breathing out for the first time after two hours of anxiety gave way to that old familiar screeching wall of noise. The final set was close but, with Verdasco looking weary, Murray broke and served out for the match.
In an echo of last year's Olympic final on the same court, the crowd chanted his name at the end, a rather clinching public embrace for an SW19 audience that has, in the past, been rather more muted in its affections.
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