Technically, I’d say Andy Murray looks better with short hair. But he really seems more himself—more Muzzardly—when he lets it fly high and wild and ragged. As much as he’s cleaned and clipped and polished himself up over the years, Andy is never going to be slick. And hallelujah for that.
Murray's red locks were in full, flaming flight over the weekend in Vienna, where he won his second title of the fall and improved his chances of qualifying for the ATP’s year-end championships in London next month. Eight players make it to the O2 Arena; Murray is in eighth place with two events left. While the World Tour Finals will sell plenty of tickets without him, it’s safe to say that promoters are pulling for the hometown hero—or, after his recent pro-Scottish secession tweet, the hometown villain—to make it.
If Murray performs the way he did in the last four games of his 5-7, 6-2, 7-5 win over David Ferrer in the Vienna final on Sunday, he’ll undoubtedly make it to London. He might even win the whole thing. When a player has an especially good run of form, or competes with more conviction and aggression than normal, many of us wonder, “Why can’t he do that all the time?” I try to save myself from this sort of fruitless pleading; everyone, after all, has flaws that will never be fixed. But in the case of Murray, and the way he approached those final games against Ferru, I couldn’t hold out any longer. When Murray cracked a backhand return winner to break for 6-5, and send a raging Ferrer around the bend for good, I could be heard asking my television set, “Where has that shot been all these years?”
Murray, as his winning return indicates, played with unusual aggression down the stretch. He ran around and took full cuts at his forehand, and came to the net whenever possible. He was also more positive than normal. By which I mean that, along with beating his thigh with his racquet, smiling sarcastically toward his player box, and ranting at an invisible tormentor on court, Murray threw in a fist-pump or two. They were enough. Down 3-5 in the third and seemingly unable to hold serve against a nightmarishly persistent opponent who had just beaten him two weeks ago, Murray found a way back.