Today, Thomas Muster showed us just how far the men’s tour has evolved in the years since he departed it. It’s so true: The fist-pump really has come a long way. A decade after the Austrian hard-head announced that he was going on a “holiday” and never returned, we’ve seen the advent of the Nadal leg kick, the Djokovic heart-attack, the Hewitt lawn-mower, the Murray Bowser-bicep point, and the Insane Cheerleader, brought to you by Gael Monfils. Even Muster’s countryman Jurgen Melzer has learned to hold his clenched fingers in front of his face long enough to show everyone that he means some sort of business. The Moo Man, by contrast, when he finally did get to celebrate something in his opening-round loss in Vienna today, hopped up and down and shook his arms spasmodically, as if he wasn’t sure exactly where they should end up. If the former No. 1’s comeback is going to continue, and he says it is, he might want to consider a fist-pump refresher course down at ATP U.
Of course, it was nice to see a 43-year-old get a chance to celebrate anything in an ATP match. Muster, who has been in and out and in and out of shape over the last decade—doing things by halves never was the man’s style—has been dabbling in the Challenger circuit lately, but this was the first main-tour, main-draw match since his return. It came against fellow Austrian Andreas Haider-Maurer, who is 20 years his junior. Haider-Maurer won 6-2, 7-6 (5).
Muster was thoroughly out-hit—and out-served and out-run—in the first set, but from a physical standpoint he didn’t look bad. He's more leathery, and seemingly more gaunt, and he has less hair—you know, he's older—but he also looked leaner and fitter than anyone his age on the senior tour. Not that it made any difference in the first set. Haider-Maurer, ranked No. 157 and a lucky loser, quickly gave Muster and everyone else watching an idea of how the game has changed in the last 15 years.
Putting aside their ages for a minute, there were two notable, not to say glaring, differences in their games. First and most obvious was the serve. Muster’s wasn’t all that shabby. He hit five aces, and his motion actually looked smoother than I remember it. There was something Nadal-esque about his body turn and the way he got himself well into the court before making contact. A relatively effective lefty delivery overall, and not a giant drop from the serve he had 15 years ago. But it didn’t win him half as many free points as his opponent’s. When Haider-Maurer faced any sort of trouble today, he reared back like every other ball-bashing whippersnapper and belted an almost-guaranteed service winner into Muster’s backhand side. The 1995 French Open champion had trouble keeping those returns within 20 feet of the court.
That brings us to the second notable/glaring difference between the games of then and now, the backhand. Muster hits his with one hand. That’s not disqualifying today—Federer does, too, as we know—but it does make life harder if you want to go toe to toe from the baseline, something pretty much everyone needs to be able to do just to survive in 2010. Especially if, like Muster and unlike Federer, you’re not a connoisseur of the slice. The advantage of one hand is that you get more variety and more reach, and it’s a natural stroke for approach shots. But Muster is a born mudballer who loves topspin more than anything else; he won 40 of his 44 career titles on clay. He never really needed approach shots. The result today was that Muster’s topspin backhand, without the power of two hands, hung in the middle of the court, begging for the whippersnapper to bash it. Which he did. When Muster tried to take control of a rally, he invariably overhit.
In the second set, Muster worked out his nerves and began to hold his own in rallies. He also began to use the slice approach, and it worked. He moved forward more often than in the old days, and near the end of the set he held serve with two deft drop volleys. Then he pumped his fist. But Haider-Maurer, throwing bombs when he needed them, never dropped serve, and he held on through a couple of nervous points to win the tiebreaker 7-5. Muster had gotten much better through the match, but his opponent never appeared to be challenged.
Otherwise, Muster was the same as always. The same martial, machine-like walk, with the same overt, forward-charging determination. If he doesn’t celebrate like Nadal, he does bring a similar ceaseless intensity, in a less flamboyant form. I was never a huge Muster fan, but any chance to see a legend, even if wasn’t your legend, makes the memories fonder. Even the guys you didn’t love, if they were good enough or original enough, added something to the game that can't be recovered. Tennis is a composite off all of its individual’s personalities, and no individual can be repeated or even simulated—there really can never be a "modern-day Laver" or "the Borg of this generation." Seeing Muster today reminded me of my favorite match-up of his, with Michael Chang. When they went head to head, it was a clash of two immovable wills; in the French final of ’95, Muster was the more immovable. As with another match-up from that time period, Ivan Lendl and Mats Wilander, the tennis wasn’t necessarily beautiful, but it didn’t have to be. Seeing Muster today made me happy that the sport has gotten, on the whole, more beautiful in the last 10 years.
Muster’s only “lead” came when he was up 3-2 in the tiebreaker, with his opponent to serve. Haider-Maurer missed his first one this time, and spun in a second down the middle. Here was Muster’s chance, if he was ever going to have a chance. He moved to his right to hit a forehand, but he was too far back in the court, and he whipped up on it too quickly. The ball landed lamely in the net and Muster let out an angry yell. He’d fought all the way back, playing loose and inspired tennis to reach the tiebreaker. Then, the moment he was ahead, he got tight.
Some things change in tennis. Others stay exactly the same.