MURRAY FADES AGAIN FROM RICHARD EVANS, KEY BISCAYNE

To mess around with one of Oscar Wilde’s quotes, for Andy Murray to lose one love set to Novak Djokovic may seem unfortunate but to lose two would seem like carelessness.

But Murray is not careless. He is one of the least careless people you are likely to meet or watch play tennis. He works like a dog at his fitness, primarily in the heat of Key Biscayne on the very court that saw him wilt in the face of the world No 1 yet again, going down in the final of the Miami Open 7-6, 4-6, 6-0 after losing to the Serb in the final of the Australian Open two months ago 7-6, 6-7, 6-3, 6-0.

There were unanswered questions after Murray’s collapse in Melbourne, having played such great tennis in the early part of the match and they remain unanswered after this fascinating, strength-sapping duel in the sun that also took an unexpected turn towards the end.

By the end of the second set in Australia, Djokovic had been staggering about, seemingly on the point of collapse – so much so that Murray said that he had become distracted by the state of his opponent. Djokovic did not appear to be in such bad condition at the end of the second set here but he did look the more tired of the two which was hardly surprising as the Scot has been dictating the rallies and making his opponent do the bulk of the running.

But, after two long games at the start of the third, both of which Murray lost, it was Andy who faded physically, admitting afterwards that he could no longer get his feet in the right position to hit his shots.

 

So the question remains, Why? Not surprisingly, Murray insists that it is not as a result of lack of effort. “I’ve trained as hard as I can,” he said. “Maybe I could have hydrated a little bit better but I don’t think I can do lot more physically to get in much better shape.”

So what has changed? Jez Green has changed. Jez has gone. Along with assistant coach Dani Vallverdu, the Florida-based Englishman parted company with Murray at the end of last year over what, apparently, was unhappiness at the appointment of Amelie Mauresmo to replace Ivan Lendl as Andy’s No 1 coach. The full story has yet to be told and Murray does not want to talk about it. Nor does Green who is now working with Tomas Berdych who was soundly beaten by Murray in the semi-finals of the Miami Open. But that had nothing to do with fitness and everything to do with the fact that the Scot is the better player.

I have watched Green work with Murray and it was not a picnic. Rigorous and demanding did not begin to describe it. I am sure Matt Little, who was part of the entourage through the time Jez was there, works Murray hard, too. But there remains the inescapable fact that Andy never lost love sets to Djokovic when he was working with Green who joined him in 2008. (The Serb did take love sets off Andy at Monte Carlo in 2008 and Miami the previous year) It is possible that his departure has nothing to do with Andy being unable to last the course. But it is a little difficult to ignore the possibility of it being a factor.

Murray will be the first person trying to analyze the root cause of these somewhat embarrassing and very annoying losses because, generally, he is having a good year and, technically, seems restored to the level of player he was before back surgery threw his career off course at the end of 2013.

There were even encouraging factors to take from this latest loss because he certainly played a lot better than he had while losing to Djokovic in straight sets in the semi-final of Indian Wells a couple of weeks before, as Andy was quick to point out.

“Obviously there were a lot more positives than the match at Indian Wells,” he said. “I felt I did many things better. I made things much harder for him. I was going for my shots a little bit more. I felt I did the things tactically I wanted to do on court.”

That is certainly true which made the fact that he couldn’t make the most of the opportunities he carved out for himself through applying the right tactics all the more annoying. One lost count of the number of times Murray took charge of a point and then, with Djokovic at his mercy, dumped a forehand into the net or, on a couple of occasions, failed to put away smashes. In fact on one point, he had no less than three chances to score with a smash and allowed the Great Defender to get on the end of all of them.

Twice he broke to put himself ahead in the first set and promptly handed back his advantage immediately. And this was before fatigue set in. The service breaks were partially caused by the position of the sun at one end of the Stadium and Murray never quite made up his mind as to whether he should go for a big first serve or just make sure he got it in.

Djokovic, meanwhile, sails on, collecting titles at every turn and looking very much like an established world No 1. However, he is too intelligent to get carried away. “With my team, I work hard,” he said. “I am aware that this can’t go on forever. There is eventually going to be a change of generations.”

But not imminently. Murray will move back to No 3 in the world this week and, as the tour rolls on to the clay courts of Europe, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer will re-enter the equation, ensuring that, after some juggling for position last year due mainly to Murray’s surgery, the Top4 will re-establish itself at the top of the game. Amazingly, it has been that way for the last decade.

Topics: Andy Murray, Atp, Miami Open tennis, Novak Djokovic, Richard Evans, Tennis

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