For some time now, shrewd pundits and fans have been wondering, when will Jerzy Janowicz arrive?
When will Brad Gilbert start calling him “JJ?” How long before someone, ticking off names such as Agnieszka and Urszula Radwanska, Janowicz, Lukasz Kubot, Mariusz Frystenberg and Marcin Matkowski, declares that Poland is the “new Serbia?” When will Janowicz be spoken of in the same breath as Milos Raonic, John Isner, or Tomas Berdych?
The obvious answer is, “maybe tomorrow.” That’s because today, Janowicz tacked up a noteworthy upset of Andy Murray at the Paris Masters, 5-7, 7-6 (4), 6-2.
Janowicz pulled off the feat on a day when Murray was—at least at the onset—neither cranky nor self-punishing nor wildly off his game. He did it on a day when he served numerous bombs and rockets (Janowicz's first serve often registered up in the 140-plus M.P.H. range), but his whistling forehands and feathery, surprise drop shots played just as large a role in the upset—a performance that yielded such a dramatic on-court celebration tumble that the Pole skinned his knee.
Heaven knows what the rapidly maturing, 6’8”, 21-year-old from Lodz would do should he ever actually win an ATP tour title—never mind a big one, like Wimbledon. And speaking of Wimbledon, did you see that Janowicz qualified there this year, and knocked off Ernests Gulbis in the second round of the main draw, before falling to ATP No. 29 Florian Mayer, 7-5 in the fifth set?
Trust me on this: Janowicz is coming on, and he’s going to be a whole lot more than a one-trick serving pony. While his game is still as inchoate as his public image, it already has more dimensions and variety than that of many comparable big men. There isn’t one among them whose hands are as soft as Janowicz’s, nor one who moves quite as well. In fact, you wouldn’t know how tall he is just by watching him play.
Janowicz’s gifts were on ample display in today’s match, which started with Murray looking strong, purposeful, and utterly free of his self-sabotaging instincts. Sure, the Scot’s last two losses were from match-point up (against Milos Raonic and Novak Djokovic, respectively). But as much as that must hurt, it also tells you that Murray was one swing of the racquet—on either side of the net—from beating both those men. Leave out the spooky mental after-effects of failing to convert match points (and Murray is far too successful and accomplished a player to be haunted by such things), and the only takeaway for him was this: You played well enough to win the match, it’s just that you didn’t.
Janowicz’s howitzer serve enabled him to keep pace with Murray until the 11th game, when JJ fell into the 0-30 hole by virtue of an ill-advised cat-and-mouse exchange of drop shots. His willingness to use the drop shot, especially when he’s teased out a poor return or his opponent is expecting a stinging forehand approach blast, is noteworthy. No other big man on the scene seems as aware of how much the short, soft game can do for someone whose long, big game is so lethal.
A forehand error then gave Murray two break points at 15-40 (they were the first break points Janowicz had given up in his last 27 service games). The lion of Lodz wiped the first one away with a volley, but capitulated on the next, with a prodigious double fault.
At that stage, the plot was suspiciously familiar: Big man with a big game goes toe-to-toe for most of a set, but at the last moment the better player calls his bluff and somehow the big serve crumbles from the sheer strain put upon it. We’ve seen it a thousand times.
The only sign that it wasn’t necessarily going to be the story of this match was when Janowicz hung tough and arrived at a break point of his own in the next game—thanks to yet another unexpected, successful drop shot. But Murray fought through the crisis and, after three deuces, won the set.
Janowicz’s serving proficiency dropped off sharply in the second set, yet time and again he was bailed out by his groundstrokes. He has a powerful, del Potro-esque forehand, and a versatile, two-handed backhand that he can either drive or alter to hit a heavy slice. He may not be as smooth as, say, a Roger Federer, but because Janowicz moves so well and covers so much ground with those long legs, he usually gets a good look. That means he can hit some pretty offensive shots from what starts out as a defensive position, defying the trademark those vaunted members of the Big Four collectively tried to put on that facility.
Janowicz struggled in the fifth game, but held after nearly nine minutes to go up 3-2. He wasn’t so lucky in his next service game, and the break left Murray serving for a 5-3 lead. Both men held, and Murray had a chance to serve it out at 5-4. He got to match point, but he came up short in the ensuing, long rally, yanking an ugly cross-court forehand outside the court. Another pair of rally errors paid off with a break for Janowicz: 5-5.
Significantly, it was Janowicz’s defensive and rallying ability that saved his bacon, and that too was a repeated theme today. Take the ensuing tiebreaker. Janowicz struck first, forcing a forehand error by Murray for 0-2. He gave back the mini-break with a double fault, but then Janowicz held his own in yet another long rally, approaching the net at an opportune moment, and forcing a passing shot error.
While Janowicz was unable to make that second mini-break stick, he won the tiebreaker by challenging Murray’s superb cross-court forehand with his own. That got him a 6-4 lead, with another Murray serve to come. Janowicz won the set with a drop shot that caught Murray completely flat-footed.
Winning the ‘breaker further enflamed Janowicz. Conversely, you could see the air go out of Murray in the third game of the third set, when Janowicz crushed a pair of service-return winners to take the first two points, than clocked a forehand winner to make it 15-40. Murray clawed back and even held an ad-point, but after bringing it back to deuce, Janowicz blasted a forehand passing shot and an inside-out second-serve return winner to break. Janowicz wouldn’t need it, but he collected another insurance break in the fifth game and went on to serve it out.
Statistically, the numbers that stood out on a day when both men made 62 percent of their first serves were Janowicz’s edge in winners (51 to 31) and his success coming forward—he won the point on 14 of his 20 ventures to the net.
It’s too early to proclaim the birth of a new star, but both the game and the personality of Janowicz are coming into focus quickly—more quickly, perhaps, than any of us expected.