!Murray PARIS—Meeting with the Argentinian press before his French Open quarterfinal with Andy Murray, 31-year-old veteran Juan Ignacio Chela was asked by his countrymen how he felt he matches up with Murray. He reportedly said, "I'll use an automotive analogy. I'm like a Torino (a common, conventional sedan) and he's a Lotus. And the Torino's tank is almost out of gas."
Given that Murray is No. 4 in the world, you'd think that the confession by Chela ensured that a blowout was in the offing. Having no good reason to assume that he'd survive the second round at Roland Garros (something he hasn't done in six years), Chela played World Team Cup the week before the French Open. That effort, at his age (31), combined with his unexpected drive to the quarterfinals here, left him feeling ready to drop today.
But the way Murray is playing—and acting—these days, it looks like tennis is about as much fun for him as a root canal. But I've got to hand it to the Scottish laddie, he sure has a way of making his matches interesting.
Then there's this: Chela was eliminated at Roland Garros by Murray for two years running (including in the first round in 2009). Veteran Murray watchers knew all these details suggested that this match could be a corker. And when Murray came out and appeared to be more tightly-strung than his racket, losing four straight games after he opened the match with a hold, their worst suspicions were confirmed. In no time at all, Murray was down 3-5 and Neil Harman of the Times of London, the doyen of Murray watchers, was ready to fling himself from the top of Lenglen.
But we know that in the parallel universe inhabited by Murray (the one in which you blow huge leads, lose the games you're supposed to win, and come closer than any man on earth to stopping Novak Djokovic's winning streak), strange things are not just known but likely to happen. Chela has one of the least effective serves on the men's tour, yet in 2010 he led the ATP in percentage of return points won and finished second to Djokovic in service-break proficiency. All the more reason to expect anarchy!
Perhaps that explains why a visitor from Mars might have mistaken this match for a WTA break-fest. It was a straight-sets affair, with Murray winning 7-6 (2), 7-5, 6-2 and, to slightly alter a familiar phrase, "the outcome was always in doubt."
The match lasted seven minutes less than three hours and produced a whopping 13 service breaks, an average of more than four per set. It wasn't pretty, but it sure was fun, and it offered a pretty good answer to the question, "What happens when counterpuncher meets counterpuncher?" The short answer: A lot. The longer version: a plethora of drop shots, remarkable retrieves, terrific passing shots—stuff that brings a smile to your face unless you're one of those serious types.
Chela's game is like a blank canvas—you paint what you want on it. He's just there to see what he can do when you try to take control of a point. Given the extent to which Murray screws around and does all kinds of things to get himself into absurdly difficult predicaments, those two first-set breaks were ominous. Winning the set could have given Chela a nice shot of adrenalin, and pushed Murray right up to the brink of despondency that he's experienced—and made no effort to hide—for a few months now.
But let's not forget that when Murray is on a hot streak, he hits shots nobody else can (like that two-handed backhand half-volley, taken off a Chela approach shot in no-man's land, which the Scot somehow flicked back at an extreme, cross-court angle for a stone-cold winner). He still has those hot streaks, only now they're just three-points long and often followed by a comparably lengthy display of woeful tennis (that's Murray in the photo, presumably sticking his finger down his throat after making one of his 44 unforced errors). Have you forgotten, Andy, that it takes at least four points to win a game?
Murray used all his wiles to regain those two first-set breaks and then rolled through the tiebreaker, 7-2. He then broke Chela in the first game of the next set and held, at which point it looked like Murray might rip right on through. But Chela held for 1-2 and the race was on; in the finest WTA tradition, it became not a question of who would break first, but who would find it his power to hold. It was Chela, after four consecutive breaks, and when he broke Murray in the next game, it was suddenly 5-all.
Of course, Murray broke Chela once again, and he managed to hold his own serve with an ace to close out the set, 7-5. The third set was a formality, and it was a good thing, because Harman was plumb out of valium.
—Pete Bodo