Five reasons Roger Federer beat Andy Murray
- Saturday, February 6, 2010, 12:29
- Australian Open
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It was always going to be a tough ask for Andy Murray to beat an in-form Roger Federer for his first Grand Slam title. Eurosport-Yahoo! takes a look at the five main reasons why it proved just beyond the 22-year-old this time around.5. A lack of aggression
There has always been the concern that Murray is too passive in the big games and Sunday’s final did nothing to alleviate those fears. Only in his fourth-round win over John Isner did Murray hit fewer winners than in the final.
Worse than that, though, is the fact that in his quarter-final against Rafael Nadal – a match that essentially only lasted two sets – Murray battered an incredible 52 winners compared with just 40 against Federer.
Yes, Federer’s error count is higher now than it used to be; but the world number one is enjoying a resurgence in form in the past 12 months, and he is simply not going to beat himself.
Murray needed to continually take the game to Federer, but instead seemed cowed by some early stunners from the Swiss maestro.
4. An errant serve
Throughout the tournament Murray was hampered by a serve that seemed to be on an extended off-season. But it was against Federer that this caused the most problems.
Admittedly, it was in the first round that Murray’s first-serve percentage was at its lowest, down at a miserable 33 per cent. And a 56 per cent success rate is a considerable improvement; albeit still lower than his fourth-round, quarter- and semi-final percentage.
But it’s not the first-serve percentage that is the most worrying, more the percentage of points that Murray won behind his serve. On its own, winning 69 per cent of the points behind your first serve does not sound too bad (although Federer was winning 72 per cent behind his).
But if you also include the fact that the Brit was only winning 46 per cent of points behind his second serve, that leaves Murray winning less than 60 per cent of all points on serve.
3. A failure to get the crowd involved
What Murray usually does so well is put his opponents where they beat themselves, and working the crowd up into a frenzy helps him do so: after he unleashes a few eye-poppingly outrageous winners they get on to their feet to cheer, and the Scot feeds off that energy.
His semi-final against Cilic was a perfect example: Murray produced two of the shots of the tournament – the forehand around the net post and the backhand passing shot winner off an inch-perfect lob, and seemed as excited as the crowd were to see the shots go in.
But with the single exception of his dynamic break back early in the first set, Murray failed to get the crowd behind him. Yes, the Australian tennis-going public adore Federer, but they are also a sucker for an underdog.
You could feel the love for Murray trying to break free in the Rod Laver Arena on Sunday night; but try as he might he just couldn’t tap into it.
2. A failure to capitalise on his chances
Murray might not have had a good match, but that’s not to say he didn’t have his chances to put some real pressure on Federer.
The Brit enjoyed eight break points in the course of the three sets, with several of them falling at key times in the match.
After recovering from going down an early break, Murray broke back and then held three more break points to take a 3-2 lead. Federer saved one of those points with a cracking serve, but both of the others went begging when Murray hit feebly into the net.
Similarly, Murray is probably still kicking himself about the way the third set panned out. Up 5-2 after a scintillating passage of play, the fifth seed really should have closed it out and forced a fourth set.
And even when Federer broke back Murray still went on to hold five – yes, five – set points in that breathtakingly tense tie-break.
Grand Slam winners come through on those big points – and that’s why Murray did not win.
But the biggest reason of all, though, that Murray could not break a 74-year wait for a British Grand Slam champion is also the simplest…
1. He was playing Roger Federer
Simply put, Federer is one of, if not THE, best tennis player ever to step on to the court.
But Murray’s defeat was not a case of the Scot not believing that he could beat the man across the net – he does believe it. In fact he knows it. He’s done it before. Six times – albeit not in a Grand Slam and not over five sets.
It’s more a case that Federer simply does not entertain the thought that he might not win. Put in that situation, the world number one and 16-times Grand Slam champion steps on to court with a straightforward attitude – “come and beat me if you can”.
And you know what? On the few occasions that his opponent has done just that, Federer is the first to congratulate them for playing a cracking match.
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