Determined Murray scores biggest post-comeback victory in Antwerp

Some matches are so hard-fought and debilitating that, no matter who wins the battle that day, both players end up losing the war. Rafael Nadal’s four-hour victory over Novak Djokovic in Madrid in 2009 crushed the French Open hopes of each man that year. Djokovic’s five-hour win over Roger Federer in the 2019 Wimbledon final left both of them reeling for the rest of the summer.

While it isn’t as legendary as those two epics, Stan Wawrinka’s five-set win over Andy Murray in the 2017 Roland Garros semifinals was almost as good, and, unfortunately, even more damaging. Both Murray and Wawrinka would end their seasons a month later at Wimbledon, and both would have season-ending surgery soon after: Murray on his right hip, Wawrinka on his left knee. It was anyone’s guess whether these two 30-somethings would ever make it back on tour. At the start of this season, Murray went so far as to announce that he was retiring.

So it was fitting that, 10 months after that low point, Murray would record the biggest win of his miraculous 2019 comeback against Wawrinka in the final of the European Open in Antwerp. Murray’s 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 win, in two and a half grueling hours, was his third three-set victory in three days. Obviously, his 32-year-old, surgically repaired body is holding up well. And as he showed over the course of the last two, topsy-turvy sets against Wawrinka, his game is as good as it’s ever been.

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“The last few years have been extremely difficult,” Murray said afterward, while holding back tears. “Both me and Stan have had a lot of injury problems the last couple of years. It’s amazing to be back playing in a final against him like that. I thought it was a great match.”

Halfway into it, though, this was a match that Murray looked certain to lose. Wawrinka was the more assertive player through the first set and a half, hitting winners from both wings seemingly at will. Stan had worked himself into an unstoppable groove in his one-sided semifinal victory over Jannik Sinner in the semis, and he was in that kind of mood again to start the final. When Wawrinka went up 3-1 in the second set, Murray’s shoulders slumped even more than usual.

“Stan was playing unbelievable, hitting winners all over the court,” Murray said.

Murray’s comeback began at 1-3, when he eked out what would prove to be a crucial, momentum-stopping hold. Suddenly there was a new determination in Murray’s stride, as if he had decided that he simply wasn’t going to lose this match. It’s a look we had seen from Murray when he’s faced Wawrinka before. While the Scot came in with an 11-8 record against the Swiss, I’ve always felt like Wawrinka has the advantage in their match-up; he can hit an opponent off the court in a way that Murray can’t. The times when Murray has won big matches against Wawrinka—like their 2016 French Open semifinal—Murray has brought an extra level of determination to the court, as if he needs to prove something to himself.

Murray had that look through the last set and a half on Sunday. He had to scramble to chase down Wawrinka’s bombs. He had to save break points with big serves of his own. He had to break back multiple times after being broken. And he had to break one more time, in a long final game, to escape with the win. But even as he was berating himself and tossing his racquet, Murray never lost that look of belief, that extra level of determination. He may have come into this tournament unseeded and not anticipating a victory, but now that he was here, in the final, like old times, he wasn’t going to let the opportunity slip.

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“I just managed to hang in at the end of the second set,” Murray said. “The third set was extremely close again. I didn’t expect to be in this position at all, so I’m very happy.”

Since Murray returned to the tour in June, he had set out to prove that he could physically play tennis again. Against Wawrinka, he set out to prove that he could still be the player he once was, and he succeeded. Even for a former No. 1, it has been an astonishingly rapid rise. At the end of August, Murray lost in the round of 16 at a Challenger event to a player ranked just inside the Top 100; two months later he’s a title winner in Antwerp, with a win over a fellow three-time major champion.

Along the way, he has also reminded us, happily, of what The Andy Murray Show adds to the ATP. He has shown off his Hall of Fame hands, and his shrewd way of constructing a rally. He has raged at himself and his team as only he can do. He has told Fabio Fognini to “shut up.” And he flashed a little of his deadpan sense of humor on Sunday. Asked about going home to see his wife, Kim Sears, who is pregnant with their third child, Murray said with a smile, “When I’ve been off the road the last few years, my family’s gotten bigger, so I need to get on the road so we don’t get out of control.”

Whatever your reason for coming back is, Andy, it’s good enough for us. Perhaps there will be some cosmic justice in this victory: If Wawrinka’s win over Murray in Paris in 2017 brought about their demise, will Murray’s win in Antwerp signal a renaissance for both men in 2020?