Andy Murray triumphed in an exhausting four-hour, five set Australian Open Semi-Final with Roger Federer earlier today.
In what represents a ‘changing of the guard’ moment at the top of the men’s singles game third seed, Murray, demonstrated greater physical prowess over his older Swiss opponent who is currently ranked second best in the world.
Following a runners-up performance at the 2012 Olympics and losing out to Tomas Berdych in the quarter-finals of last year’s US Open, Federer failed to replicate the sort of tennis that turned Murray into a quivering wreck at Wimbledon six months ago.
For Murray, that post-Wimbledon final emotion turned him into the nation’s most popular loser since Paul Gascoigne laid on the waterworks at Italia ’90, and inspired him to become a whole lot tougher.
And what a transformation it has been! He grabbed an Olympic gold medal at SW19 over his Wimbledon conqueror and then added a first Grand Slam later in the year, beating Novak Djokovic in the US Open final.
On Sunday, Murray will face the Serb for 2013’s first Grand Slam in Australia and it would be remarkable were Andy to beat the world number one again and preserve his exceptional recent record in major finals.
Federer didn’t make it easy for Murray, though, and Djokovic may benefit from having more rest time than the Scot, having eased through in his Semi-Final match-up against David Ferrer.
After Murray went 2-1 up in the contest, the fourth set ended up being a classic as both players jousted for position for an hour. First, Federer took a three-game lead as Murray looked set to throw away a golden opportunity to earn an early victory.
From this position, Murray resolved to banish the unforced errors plaguing the set and broke Federer to eventually be in handily-placed to win the match on his opponent’s serve. At 30-0, Murray snarled aggressively as he sought to dismantle the less expressive Federer but the Swiss kept his cool and played some outstanding tennis to level the game.
The effort Federer had put into sustaining the challenge seemed to rid the 31-year-old of his remaining reserves of energy and 25-year-old Murray picked off his competitor fairly comfortably in the final set.
It was the first time Murray had beaten Federer in a Grand Slam and it appears as if Djokovic-Murray is the new duopoly at the head of world tennis. Rafa Nadal makes his long-awaited comeback in February and Federer – the most successful men’s singles tennis player of all time – won’t be leaving the spotlight so easily, but for Murray, his time, more than ever, is now.
When Murray first came onto the scene, he displayed touches of outstanding technical ability but perhaps faltered due to a lack of endurance. He is a temple of muscle and stamina now which has added grit to his game with few claiming to be fitter than the driven Scot.
He has never look stronger or more aggressive than at present and Sunday promises to be a gruelling affair with both men wrecking balls with a tennis racket in their hand.
You shouldn’t have made Andy cry, should you have, Roger?
Andrew Belt