Djokovic Defeats Murray for 3rd Miami Crown

Written by: Tennischiro on 3rd April 2012

Djokovic Defeats Murray for 3rd Miami Crown

epa03168237 Novak Djokovic of Serbia holds the trophy after defeating Andy Murray of Britain after their finals match at the Sony Ericsson Open on Key Biscayne, Florida, USA, 01 April 2012. EPA/ANDREW GOMBERT |

Novak Djokovic showed once again why he is the best player in the game, especially at crunch time. He served adequately and only allowed Murray one break point in the entire match. That break point came in the 5th game after Novak had broken Andy in the marathon 16-point 4th game. Nole broke again in the next game after saving that break point. He served out the set with an ace as he made all 5 first serves in that game. He finished off the first set with forehand volley winner, service winner, backhand winner and that ace.

Then in the second set, Murray was constantly under pressure in his service games as Nole pushed Andy to deuce in each of his first three service games in the second set, including 15-40 at 1-6, 1-1. But the Scot gamely fought back and saved all four of the break points Djokovic had in the second set. On the other hand, the Serb was pushed to deuce just once at 3-4 and twice more at 5-6. That was probably Murray’s best chance: at 5-6 and deuce twice, he was just 2 points from a third set; but that was as close as he got.

Going into the tie-breaker, Djokovic jumped right out to a 2-0 lead. Andy was able to get one minibreak back and level the TB at 2-2 with a jaw-dropping backhand dropshot winner to conclude a long rally; then he immediately gave the minibreak edge back with a double. On his next three service points (at 3-2, 4-2 and 5-4), Djokovic made all his first serves and finished the points off with a forehand winner, an ace and another forehand winner. Murray yielded the match point with a forehand error after Djokovic made yet another first serve. In fact, Novak made 5/6 first serves in the tie-breaker while Murray was making just 2 of 5. And losing 2 of those 3 second serve points cost him the tie-breaker.

You didn’t have to see the match to draw these conclusions; you could simply read the chart of the points. But I did watch the entire match and it was clear from the outset that Djokovic was much more in control of play once they got into the points. They both started just the least little bit tentative in the first couple of games. But once Djokovic got his break in the 4th game to go up 3-1, he was increasing the pace. He was hitting the deeper ball and he was more willing to change directions and take the ball sharply up the line. And most of the time, Novak was taking the ball earlier and acting as the aggressor. Towards the end of the match, Murray seemed to try to play the ball a little earlier and take the mantle of the aggressor, but Djokovic’s balls were too deep for him and he was never able to establish any comfort level taking the ball early. In their match in Dubai, Andy had been able to do a much better job of that. Neither player seemed eager to offer his opponent any angles so the crosscourt rallies were often closer to the center mark on the baseline than to the sidelines. In this respect, it wasn’t nearly as exciting as the Djokovic/Ferrer semifinal. (I think Ferrer would have beaten the version of Murray that showed up today. But that is often faulty thinking, because the weapons Murray is dealing with are so different for Ferrer and Djokovic.) It was also interesting how much both players respected one-another’s backhands with so many serves going to the forehand.

The one thing that puzzles me is why Murray is not more forceful with his serve. Murray hit a number of first serves up in the mid 130’s and yet he was usually serving first serves closer to 110 or even kicking them in much slower than that. I’m used to seeing his second serve at least in the mid 90’s and he was laying them in at just a little over 84 mph. I can understand Djokovic holding back a little; he only allowed one break point and saved it. But Murray allowed 8 and was constantly under pressure on his service games. One of the great things Lendl did was pummel his opponents with his first serve. He could certainly have beaten almost all of them once the rally got started, but he pounded the first serve and gave little quarter to his opponents. Unless there was some injury involved that we don’t know about, I would look for Lendl to get this philosophy across to Andy over the next few months and that could make a big difference to him. I was so impressed with the way he served in Tokyo against Nadal; it seemed like every time he was in trouble he served a couple of aces. Granted, that was a very special day for him, but I’d like to see some evidence of that skill and attitude; and he needs it if he is to have a chance against the top three in big matches.

At the end of the day, you have to take your hat off to Djokovic. He is beating his opponents with better court coverage, deeper strokes and complete all court play, not to mention his continued defensive mastery. I am inclined to think he could be a little more aggressive, certainly with his serve, but a lot of the lower level of offensive play in today’s match with Murray was due to his unwillingness to give the Scot a clear target for a counterattack. Perhaps Murray summed it up best before the match when he said he was looking for a “painful” match. He was hoping to soften up Djokovic with long physically demanding points leading to an opening for Murray to attack (or a weak, forced attack from Novak that would give him passing opportunities). Djokovic absorbed the punishment and ended up winning most of those long points. Murray needs to get on top of the baseline and control the points to push Djokovic around and he simply wasn’t able to do it today. Simple extended shot tolerance is not going to be enough to beat Djokovic. And as his reign as number one goes on, Novak seems more and more able to be the one to seize the first opportunity to attack in those long points. It would have been nice to have seen Federer get through to Nole in the semis; Roger is the one player who may be able to take control of those long points and turn defense into offense better than Djokovic. But Novak clearly has the edge in defensive court coverage, shot tolerance and simple consistency. As for Nadal, if the loss of depth in Nadal’s shots in the second set against Tsonga was just a function of his sore knee, he may be able to challenge Djokovic in long points; Rafa seemed to be hitting the ball a little deeper off the forehand and bigger off the backhand. On the other hand, he continues to struggle to generate the big first serve that characterized his run to the US Open title in 2010. He’s going to need that to get the upper hand in long matches with Djokovic.

We’ll find out soon enough who rules the long points as the clay court season gets underway. As of right now, I’m picking Djokovic for the French, with the one proviso that I need to see signs that he is capable of serving consistent first serves in the low to mid 120’s, or at least in the high teens. We should have plenty of chance to see both Nadal and Federer mix it up with Djokovic before they get to Roland Garros. Of course, Murray will still have something to say about that, but he will have to play much better than he did today for it to be meaningful, especially on the dirt.

Here are the charts of the Djokovic/Murray match. I got most of it down correctly. You may enjoy checking out the serve placement as well as the actual service velocities. I got most of them.

Djokovic/Murray first set:
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/822/djokovimurraymiami2012s.jpg/

Djokovic/Murray second set:
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/193/djokovimurraymiami2012s.jpg/

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