Andy Murray's brilliant fall came crashing down around his ears in the quarterfinals of the Paris Indoors Masters; he was beaten by Tomas Berdych, 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-4, in a mess of a three-hour and 12-minute match in which the two players managed to convert just four of a combined 31 break points.
The loss ended Murray's 17-match winning streak, but it was still just his second loss since mid-August.
That break-point statistic shows both how close the match was on the scoring basis—when Murray was broken to 4-5 in the third, in what would be the last and most significant break of the match, each man had won exactly 111 points; Berdych ultimately ended up with just three more, at 122—and also how absurd it is to do micro-analysis of the kind that starts with, In the fourth game of the third set, Berdych faced yet another blah-blah-blah. So we'll pretty much stick with the macro-analysis and add a few key details.
Murray had two big problems today. First, Berdych makes enough power off the ground and moves well enough to put the kibosh on the kind of counter-punching and tactical maneuvering that pays off for Murray against so many other rivals. Time and again, Berdych's placement and pace enabled him to rob Murray of his ability to, in the popular catch phrase, "defend aggressively."
The other problem Berdych posed was his ability and willingness to attack. In a match that could be called a dead heat in a number of key statistical categories (for example, Berdych won 76 percent of his first-serve points; Murray got 77 percent), the most striking difference was in the net game. Berdych attacked the net a notable 47 times and won 32 of those points. Murray attacked just nine times, mostly in gimme situations.
All in all, that combination of talent allowed Berdych to stay close to the higher-seeded Murray. And even though Berdych did most of the running, he wore Murray down. By the end, Murray was clutching his hamstring and merely rocking in place (instead of hopping around) as he awaited Berdych's service bombs.
Still, Murray put himself in a position to win the match, but then violated the mandate he expressed with a great shout early in the match: "Get aggressive!"
Murray listened to himself for a bit, and it paid off with the first break of the match, six games in at 3-3, a forehand approach shot after an exchange of drop shots doing the trick. Berdych squandered two break points from 15-40 in the next game, allowing Murray to hold despite putting just four of 11 first serves into play. And when Berdych had to fight off three break points in his next game just to stay within shouting distance at 4-5, it looked like we might be at the brink of a rout.
But after Murray served out the set, he seemed to relax—and not in a good way. Berdych broke him in the second game and with that breathing room worked his way back into the match. Murray managed to get the break back in the ninth game and then force a tiebreaker, but Berdych played better in the decider. Leading 6-5, Berdych won the tiebreaker with a handsome forehand reach volley after he followed his serve to the net.
The match was slipping away from Murray, and everyone watching could probably feel it. In the third set, the men chugged along on serve, playing entertaining and often brilliant points, until 4-4, Murray serving. The Scot immediately fell behind, 0-40, although by then even the prospect of three break points just made you ask, "So what?" The record will show that after Berdych blew two second-serve returns, the decisive break point was converted for him by Murray—via double fault.
So ended this saga full of sound and fury, with the surprise Bercy champion of 2005 moving onto the semifinals and Murray, clutching his hamstring, looking very pasty and tired without that autumnal aura he's been carrying.
—Pete Bodo