So I get up this morning, after writing at length about the desolation that had permeated the Shanghai Masters this week, and I find a brand new tournament on my TV. The stands are crowded, the spectators are noisy, the shots sound louder and bolder, and the play, between Gilles Simon and Novak Djokovic, is inspired. Who said this part of the season was “pointless overkill”? Were those my words, just yesterday?
While the rest of the game's marquee names have been dropping like flies, Djokovic and Rafael Nadal have begun to find their form in China, five months after they staged their version of Death in the Afternoon in Madrid and opened the door for Roger Federer to step into history. Until last week, neither the Serb nor the Spaniard had won a tournament since. Nadal benefited today from another retirement, by Ivan Ljubicic, but he did turn around what looked like a very unpromising opening to his match. Meanwhile, Djokovic took his own frustration with a first-set loss and used it for motivation, rather than letting it use him. He got mad in the third set against Simon, and then he got better. They played some fabulous points along the way.
The match, with its long and winding rallies, reminded me of the three-setter that took place at the year-end Masters Cup in Shanghai a year ago, between Roger Federer and Andy Murray. Federer was injured and Murray had already qualified for the semifinals, but their competitive juices couldn't be stopped, and the result was a grueling classic. These two guys are the missing pieces to the ATP puzzle this week—imagine if they had joined Rafa and Novak in the semis? But they didn't, so we’ll have to live with a few of the highlights from 2008, which are collected in the five-minute clip above (there’s much more where this came from on YouTube, if you’re so inclined).
—The first thing that strikes me is that Murray is a master of the edges of the game, rather than the core. In one early point here, he controls the rally to a certain degree with his forehand, but he can’t finish Federer with it, and the Swiss eventually works his way back in and wins the point. Murray’s forehand grip and stroke are slightly too flat and conservative for him to consistently hit outright winners with it from the baseline. This is something that the other members of the Top 4, as well as Juan Martin del Potro, can all do on a regular basis. If there’s an essential element to winning Grand Slams today, it’s being able to control and finish with the forehand. Del Potro’s win at the U.S. Open, coupled with Murray’s Slamless 2009, proved that all over again.
—As I said, this forces Murray to make his inroads around the edges of the court and the game. When Federer hits his customary teasing short slice backhand crosscourt, Murray is one of the few players who can not only get there in time to give himself options with the next shot, but who has the hands to drop the ball back while he’s on the run. And his forehand becomes more dangerous when he’s on the move; like Pete Sampras, he relishes turning the tables with that shot. But he isn’t as aggressive with it when he sets up for it in the middle of the court. Murray’s style and persona are that of the counterpuncher, not unlike Lleyton Hewitt, another guy who beat Federer 7-5 in the third in a classic Masters Cup match in Shanghai, back in 2002 (see highlights of that one here). They’re happiest when they’re fighting back.
—This match is a also a cautionary reminder of what the long season can do to its best players. I wrote last year that the best arguments for shortening the schedule were the late-year injuries to Nadal (he missed this event and the Davis Cup final a couple of weeks later) and Federer, who, as the announcer reminds us, received treatment for back pain during this match. But that also forced Federer to keep the points a little shorter, which made them more exciting. Check out the backhand down the line winner Federer knocks off in the third set; that’s not a shot he tries all that often. Still, in the end, it’s bad business to have the two guys who are involved in one of the sport’s all-time rivalries, the two guys who are the tour’s current meal tickets, staggering to the end of the season. The game suffered a major consequence of that in 2009 when Nadal was unable to defend his Wimbledon title because of an overuse injury to his knee.
—We can see clearly the benefits of soccer to the games of today’s Top 4. All of them are European, and all played the game as kids. Nadal’s uncle was a pro, as was Murray’s grandfather. I’d like to see a U.S. player make the fluid footwork transition that Murray does here while tracking down a seemingly ungettable drop shot from Federer. Murray strides across the baseline and in one motion switches gears and starts moving toward the net. (Murray has said he wasn’t the fastest sprinter as a kid, but he was one of the best at switching directions.) To finish this point, he flicks a forehand up the line for a winner. They don’t teach you that on the soccer pitch.
—Andre Agassi was quoted this week saying that he thinks Murray has the talent to win multiple Slams. But he’ll have to solve the power issue to do that. Del Potro’s U.S. Open win can be read as evidence that, all other things being equal, power still rules. You still have to take the biggest titles rather than letting them come to you, and you still have to dominate with the core elements—the serve, the forehand—of the game. What I do like about Murray, at least when it comes to his matches with Federer, is his attitude. He believes he's just as talented, just as athletic, and that he’s got a solid strategy to beat him. Even better, Murray doesn’t always sing the Good King’s praises.
The continuation of their rivalry will have to wait for another week. Maybe we’ll get a Fed-Murray thriller in Paris or London. Maybe we’ll get the Big 5 all decently rested and in good form for the year-end World Tour Final. If so, it will have been worth waiting through the fall season to see.
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Have a good weekend