Andy Murray
By virtue of proving themselves to be better than the rest with a tennis racket in their hands, Roger Federer and Andy Murray are the US Open’s top seeds. The pair contested last year’s final, have won four of the six Masters 1,000 events so far this year and once again are the two favourites to prevail at this year’s fourth and concluding Grand Slam tournament. That is where any similarity between the pair comes to an end.
Differences run far deeper than the fact that Federer will be red shirted at Flushing Meadows and his biggest threat will be clad in a patriotic blue. One is now a family man who appreciates the value of luxury and prefers to lock himself away with his wife and twin daughters in an opulent $3,075-a-night suite, named in his honour, at the Carlyle Hotel on Manhattan’s Upper East Side where every American president from Harry Truman to Bill Clinton rested his head when in New York.
The other man prefers to stay amid the hustle and bustle of Midtown on Lexington Avenue, a few blocks from Grand Central Station, where taxi horns perpetually honk, police sirens wail and nothing is ever still. If Federer ventures outside, he does so to climb into a luxury limousine that will whisk him across the East River to practise at Flushing Meadows or take him to a dinner date with luminary friends such as Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, music icon Gwen Stefani or perhaps even Tiger Woods. Murray prefers to be one of the lads, eating and joking with his regular support team.
He’s excited by ambling around the streets and avenues of the Big Apple. When the Scot heads to the scene of the next fortnight’s action he is happy to wander across the street with a coffee in one hand and a bagel in the other, then climb onto the shuttle bus that takes line judges, ball kids and journalists to the Billie Jean King National Tennis Centre. Murray seems oblivious to the fact that he merits celebrity status in New York. “I don’t know if Roger or Rafa [Nadal] would travel on the bus but it doesn’t bother me. That sort of stuff has never been a problem. It’s not a question of trying to be different. The bus leaves just across from the hotel so we jump on. It’s more reliable sometimes. I enjoy being here. I like the energy of all the people, the city itself. You get up early in the morning, there’s always stuff going on here.
“They’re obviously happy to see you but I don’t feel like I’m anyone special. Roger, well, he’s probably the greatest that has ever played the game and he does things his way. I like things to be a little different.”
Yet if Murray is intent on maintaining his routine, he remains committed to improving his tennis. Britain’s Davis Cup captain, John Lloyd, monitored his key player’s winning streak and solitary failure, against Federer, in the two recent Masters 1,000 series in Montreal and Cincinnati. “He’s improved as a player in the eight weeks since he lost to Andy Roddick in the Wimbledon semi-final,” Lloyd said. “He went away and figured out what he needed to do. Now he’s stronger, fitter and he’s made himself even tougher to beat. He now has the ability to come through those matches when he’s not on top of his game and opponents now hold him in higher respect. He’s No 2 in the world on merit. To use a word Andy likes to use, he’s awesome.”
Just as he did in December, Murray headed to his training base at the University of Miami but whereas the close-season training stint was two parts physical work and one part tennis mechanics, the onus was reversed in mid-July. He concentrated on bringing more pace and kick to his serve but also spent time honing his net court game. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that Larry Stefanki, the coach who masterminded Roddick’s aggressive tactics for that semi-final, said Murray was too defensive in his approach.
“Serve is important, and I’ll try and come forward more in this tournament because the conditions allow that,” Murray said. “It depends on the way your opponent is playing but the serve is the one big thing. If you can hold serve, I back myself to break serve once or a couple of times, at least, in a set. That’s how I give myself a lot of chances.”
Murray’s Grand Slam exits this year — against Spain’s Fernando Verdasco in the Australian Open fourth round, Chile’s Fernando Gonzalez in the quarter-finals of the French and Roddick at Wimbledon — were caused by an opponent upping his game and producing a better performance than expected.
“The Verdasco match and the Roddick one were a couple of points here or there which might have changed things,” he said. “Against Verdasco I had a break point in the fifth set to go up 4-2 and I didn’t take it. Against Roddick I had set points in the third set. The Gonzalez match wasn’t one I expected to win on clay so I don’t think that was a terrible loss. The other two I might have been expected to win and I know I could have done a couple of things better.”
There is a pattern to Murray’s progress through the majors this year. A fourth round, a quarter-final and a semi-final form an upward graph. It suggests he will again reach the final here but few people expect the opponent with the trophy at stake to be anybody other than Federer, who is bidding to become the first player to win a sixth straight US title since Bill Tilden in 1925.
“Roger’s made a bit of a habit of rewriting history,” said Murray, aware that there is one massive difference between himself and Federer that makes all the others irrelevant. The Swiss has won 15 Grand Slam titles, the Scot none.
THE RACE TO LONDON
Places at the calendar-ending Barclays ATP world tour finals at the O2 arena in London have already been clinched by Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray. Five spots remain for the £5m, eight-day event, starting on November 22. Novak Djokovic, Andy Roddick and Juan Martin Del Potro appear the men most likely to qualify next. London will host the event for five years and Phil Anderton, chairman, said: ‘Benefiting from an overall capacity of just over 250,000, the Barclays ATP world tour finals is on track to become the biggest indoor tennis tournament of all time.’
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