SOME people will tell you that Andy Murray still isn’t quite himself at this year’s Wimbledon. The Scot continues to hirple gingerly around the baseline between points and only sparingly displayed his full power yesterday. But of the 128 players who started this year’s tournament, only nine remain. And the World No 1 and defending champion is one of them. On Wednesday he will face Sam Querrey of the USA in his tenth consecutive quarter final at this venue, the fourth most of any player in the Open Era. This hasn’t happened by accident. It is, quite simply, what he does.
Plenty of pre-tournament rust has been shaken off during the first week and after this 7-6 (1), 6-4, 6-4 win, anyone who feels he is running on empty due to that hip problem should be well warned about his ability to go the extra mile. Murray admitted that his journey to his Oxshott home the other day had been enlivened by the fact his fuel tank was all but used up. Typically, he soon had a Plan B prepared, a route which allowed him to coast downhill to the nearest petrol station.
Coasting never seemed likely to be an option yesterday, mind you, against Benoit Paire, the fourth extravagant shot maker he has faced in a row at this year’s tournament. A man whose slender build and shaggy beard suggested he should either be cycling up an Alpe just now or waiting a table on TV reality show First Dates, this - aside from an encounter at the Hopman Cup early season exhibition event in Brisbane - was in fact this pairing’s second date.
The only previous meeting between the players on tour - a Monte Carlo win where the Scot roared back after his opponent was unable to serve it out - was credited with turning around Murray’s glory year of 2016 and Murray might just have found a similar sense of momentum here. After admitting he wasn’t exactly delighted by the standard of his play and movement against Fabio Fognini on Friday night, he appeared far happier with both.
Paire admitted he had seen little visible sign of weakness. “Between the points we can do what we want, but during the point he can run like a rabbit,” said the Frenchman. “For him, every time like this. So it is never easy to know if he’s injured, if not. If you see when he’s playing like this, he has no problem if he’s 100%. I played him last year in Monte-Carlo, and it was the same guy against me today. Mostly I think he can win Wimbledon. He has not a lot of confidence, for sure, but I’m sure he win the tournament.”
What really separates this enigmatic Frenchman from the rest of cycling’s peloton is his hair trigger temperament. Sent home from the Olympic games in Rio in disgrace for playing fast and loose with the French Federation rule book, and with form for the systematic destruction of his rackets against the Court 18 wall, Paire gave the impression yesterday of a man desperate to be on his best behaviour but still only ever to be one or two points from doing a passable impression of Michael Douglas in Falling Down. Andy Murray was a man on a mission not only to break his serve - a feat he managed five times - but to break his will.
To be fair to this 28-year-old from Avignon, he just about held those emotions in check yesterday, even if he flung himself to the turf, further mangling the sacred SW19 court at least four times, and occasionally screamed out in frustration to the heavens. But when all is said and done, he was merely the latest statistic of Murray’s success against French opposition in the Grand Slams, an unbroken run against that country’s players which now stands at 28. Much more of this and we will learn that President Macron and First Minister Sturgeon have bilaterally decided to suspend the Auld Alliance.
If the story of this one was Murray’s eight unforced errors to Paire’s 44, much of the action came early. The Scot’s serve broken in the third game of the match on the back of two clubbing forehands from the Frenchman and a sweet drop volleyed winner, but in the very next game a loose backhand from Paire saw parity restored. Three more break points came the Frenchman’s way in the next game, and he capitalised on the last, another forehand deep to Murray’s backhand doing the damage. As before, Paire couldn’t live the pressure which the Scot was exerting and we were back on serve at 4-4. After an error-strewn tie-break, the Frenchman had a mountain to climb.
Finding the agile Murray returning most with interest, Paire decided to pare back his drop-shot heavy strategy in the second and third sets but the patterns of this match were established. Murray broke first, only to find himself pegged back again, but the look of disgust on the Frenchman’s face said it all when he could only hit the bottom of the net on break point, allowing the Scot to serve out for a 2-0 lead.
Drama arrived at the start of the third, the Scot correctly taking umbrage at umpire Mohamed Lahyani for saying he didn’t challenge a Paire ‘ace’ quickly enough - in fact his action was instantaneous. “I challenged immediately then asked to see the ball afterwards,” the Scot said, but there was no real malice in the words. With boxers Carl Froch and David Haye watching on, two more errant Paire forehands provided the knockout punch.
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