It was a different type of scene in the big stadium on Friday night. The evening before, Federer vs. Djokovic offered a match-up of two marquee names with highly distinct fan bases. Coming back 24 hours later, I thought that the atmosphere for Murray vs. Ferrer would be dead by comparison. But leave it to the Aussies to bring a sense of hopeful enthusiasm to whatever sporting event they choose to attend. And leave it to Murray and Ferrer, two of the world’s fastest-moving wallboards, to put on the kind of gutsy scrap that could engage any fan, even those who had bought tickets hoping and expecting to see another Spaniard with a better-known personality.
It wasn’t the players last night, but the quality of the match that held people. Or rather it was more than the quality; it was the totality of the tennis. Murray vs. Ferrer offered four sets of the sport in all of its various forms, from the brilliant to the ornery to the very very shaky to the deeply vulnerable to the sporting to the injured to the toothy and back to the brilliant. Call it the beauty of the five-setter. As Murray said afterward when he was asked about losing his form, for the second or third or maybe fourth time that night, “You expect that to happen over the course of a three-out-of-five-set match.” A lot of things happened over the course of this one, before the two players smiled and shook hands and patted each other on the back as if it had all been another day at the office and better luck next time (nice smile in defeat by Ferrer). It deserved a fifth set, but god knows what would have happened then.
Nearing the end of two weeks of walking this way and that around Melbourne Park, it was a good match to sit down and enjoy and take a few notes on. Here’s some of what I thought as Murray and Ferrer left it all out there for us.
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How can you tell that a player is a big star? His entourage (or “coterie,” as Martina Navratilova insisted the press call her traveling circus of friends) fills every last seat in the player’s box. Even if you have to pick up someone you see on the way to the grounds, you can’t leave anything empty. Too late for David Ferrer. I guess he didn’t expect to be in Laver all that often. His box was spotted with large gaps in it. How embarrassing.
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How could you tell these guys meant business? Late in the first set, after a tremendous rally that took both of them virtually into the stands, Murray hit a forehand winner down the line. Ferrer looked toward his coach. It seemed like the moment when you might see a half-smile from a player, even if he's lost the point. There was nothing Ferrer could have done about the shot anyway, and he couldn’t have played a better point. But Ferrer didn’t smile, or half-smile, or quarter-smile.
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Do good hands go with a hot, irrational temper? If so, why? Even Federer is crazy deep down. There’s a lot of the half-Irish, half-English John McEnroe in the Scottish Andy Murray. Both have talent and both have rage; in each of their cases, the temper seems essential to the talent, but at the same time it gets in the way.
Murray fought himself more than Ferrer through the first two sets. As he has in the latter stages of majors before, he reverted to the angry and very verbal Andy we’d seen when he was younger and hairier. Murray wasn’t surprised by this—“In the semis of a Slam, some nerves are to be expected, and that’s what happened tonight.” They almost cost him, though. He was a point away from going down two sets. Thankfully for him, he was so agitated that he thought the score was 3-4 in the second set, not 4-5. He wiped away a set point, unknowingly, with a service winner. Like Djokovic last night, Murray’s serve was a difference-maker.
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Another temperamental player, Lleyton Hewitt, used to manufacture a niggling injury for himself as a tournament would begin. He didn’t do it consciously, but it helped him relax; there was just a little less on the line in his head. Murray might want to try this himself. From the moment he strained his upper leg at the start of the third set, he became a different and much better player. With just a little less to lose, and a new sense of urgency focusing his tactics, he turned into the freewheeling, creative star we’ve always known is inside him. He moved forward, he shortened points, he hit his forehand with more conviction, he took his return earlier, he made topspin lobs, he had Ferrer on a string. Then he got ahead and all the nerves came flooding back and he started missing again and cursing himself again. The niggling mid-match injury: A player’s best friend.
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And how about a word for David Ferrer. He showed a lot of class in victory over Nadal and defeat at the hands of Murray. He was pumped up for this one, and he almost stole it. He’s a hard-hat: He rarely changes his expression and never changes his rhythm—he gets the ball and moves in to serve, no matter what just happened. It gives his matches a watchable quality, with a good steady beat. You sense he’s always bringing everything, with no time to worry about style points. He has to bring it all, because he has less to bring than his colleagues in the Top 10.
Ferrer kept pummeling away as always, and even Murray’s blistering run through the third, in which he elevated himself out of Ferrer’s league, wasn’t enough to discourage him. I will say it again: Ferrer is a great guy to watch as long as he’s facing a more creative player, like Murray. The two teamed up for some extended rallies that had the crowd a little stunned, by the length and the amount of running involved.
But what is it about Ferrer and tiebreakers? He hasn’t won one at the Aussie Open since 2004. For the most part, he keeps his nerves held pretty steady. Then he gets to a breaker and he can’t put the ball in the ocean. It was the big difference tonight.
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As I said, the match was played in the good modern ATP spirit: Fight hard, fight loudly, be demonstrative, hold nothing back; and the minute it’s over, shake hands and say, “well played.”
There was one other sporting gesture that should be noted. Ferrer hit a serve that landed near the service line and was called out. He looked toward his box to see what they thought, but Murray himself indicated that he might want to challenge. Ferrer did, the ball was shown to have been in, and he used his second first serve to win the point. See what I mean? This match had a little of everything.
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Murray vs. Djokovic: Looking forward to it? More than one person here has called it a “3rd place match.” But both guys are sharp, both can play their games on this surface, though it’s supposed to be hot on Sunday. Best of all, while we’ve seen plenty of them individually, they haven’t faced off in almost two years, which should make this final feel pretty fresh. Give me another gutsy, messy, ornery, sporting scrap like this one, and I’ll be happy.