At Wimbledon, Andy Murray manages pressure like few others in sports

LONDON—What a difference five days can make.

Over the weekend, a sense of gloom had settled across the grounds of the All England Club. Andy Murray was hobbling through his practices, victim of the “the most closely scrutinized hip in England,” as one TV commentator here called it. Just as ominously, he had taken one of the most dismal defeats of his career two weeks earlier, at Queen’s Club. Murray, a five-time champion at the Wimbledon tune-up event, played perplexingly indifferent tennis in a straight-set, first-round loss to 86th-ranked Jordan Thompson. He really didn’t look like he wanted to be out there.

Finally, when the draw was made Friday, Murray appeared to have some significant obstacles in his path to a repeat title. Nick Kyrgios and Lucas Pouille, two hard young hitters who know their way around a grass court, were in brackets nearby, and Stan Wawrinka, the man who beat Murray at the French Open last month, was also in his quarter.

By Wednesday evening, the tennis fans of the U.K. were wondering what they had been so worried about. Murray romped—if the ever-self-critical Scot can be said to do anything as happy-go-lucky as romp—past Dustin Brown, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2, in 96 minutes on Centre Court; that was a little more than half the time it took Johanna Konta to squeak past Donna Vekic in the previous match, 7-6 (4), 4-6, 10-8, in three hours and 10 minutes.

When Murray came off court, he was greeted with the news that the 14th-seeded Pouille had lost to Jerzy Janowicz. First Kyrgios, then Wawrinka, now the Frenchman: All of them are out of Murray’s way.

“It was a good match from my end,” Murray said of his demolition of Brown. “I served well, until the last few games. I returned well. I didn’t make any mistakes. I hit a lot of good passing shots. So I mean, I was really happy with it, obviously.”

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It’s hard to think of a player who raises his game so thoroughly at one Slam the way Murray does when he gets to Wimbledon. Since 2008, he hasn’t lost before the quarterfinals. In that span, he’s won the tournament twice, reached the final once, and lost in the semis four times; most of those defeats have come at the hands of Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal.

Through the first half of 2017, Murray had been subpar. He had won just one event, lost early at the Australian Open, missed time with an elbow injury, and failed to close out Wawrinka when he had the chance in Paris. But none of the doubts and inconsistency that had plagued him during that time have been in evidence so far this week.

When Murray plays at Wimbledon, he doesn’t raise his game the way most tennis players do. Most players get better when they relax and play more loosely and easily. Murray gets better at Wimbledon by wiring himself even tighter than he does at other places. He plays in a kind of competitive trance, or an athletic version of levitation. He’s quicker to the ball and his shots are more precisely controlled. He’s more efficient and proactive. He doesn’t try to be spectacular, but when there’s a ball to be knocked off with a swing volley, he knocks it off; when there’s an opening for a passing shot, he finds it. Rather than rallying and letting a point develop, the way he does at other places, he takes the shortest route to winning it.

Murray’s way of dealing with the ultra-intense, hopes-of-a-nation pressure he’s under here is one of the most impressive I’ve seen in sports. Rather than trying to ignore it, or letting it get to him, he absorbs it and keep it under his control. He uses that pressure to make him more precise. But it takes a toll. Often at Wimbledon, Murray will come out of the gates at maximum intensity, stay there for two sets, and then plunge for a period. He’ll scare the locals by going down a break or losing a set, before eventually finding his way through.

Murray’s draw has lost some big names, but it’s still not an easy road. Next he plays Fabio Fognini, who beat him two months ago in Rome. Janowicz, who beat Pouille, has been to the semis here. And of course there’s Rafa in the semis; they’ve met a few times there in the past, and things haven’t gone well for Murray.

For now at the All England Club, though, the gloom has lifted. Murray may not be playing like a favorite, but at least he’s playing like a defending champion.

—GRAND SLAM WEEK: WatchWimbledon Primetime on Tennis Channel, and catch up on the other 2017 Grand Slams on Tennis Channel Plus

—Watch encores from the 2017 French Open and Australian Open on Tennis Channel Plus, including matches like the AO Final showdown between Serena & Venus Williams**