ANYONE who questioned whether Andy Murray has what it takes to cut it at the top of the men’s game can give it up after the 19-year-old Scot stunned Roger Federer, the world No 1, 7-5, 6-4 in the second round of the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters last night.
In a mature and confident display, Murray took advantage of an out-of-sorts Federer, outplaying the holder of three of the four grand-slam titles and ending his run of 55 consecutive wins in North America.
It was only Federer’s fifth defeat this year, the other four all being at the hands of Rafael Nadal, the world No 2 from Spain. Murray’s victory also ended the Swiss’s remarkable run of 17 successive tournament finals which began in Halle in 2005, cutting him off one short of the record set by Ivan Lendl between 1981-82.
Murray, who lost to Federer in the first ATP final of his career in Bangkok last October, clinched victory with a backhand pass and after shaking hands at the net, he put his head in his hands and sat on his chair for several minutes as the victory began to sink in.
Brad Gilbert, who began his job as Murray’s coach in Washington two weeks ago, put his fist to his heart at Murray’s achievement, his tenth win in 12 matches since the two joined forces. “It is the biggest win of my career,” Murray, the world No 21, said. “I wasn’t expecting to win the match. I don’t think Roger played his best match, but I have to give myself a bit of credit because not many people beat Roger Federer, even when he’s playing badly.”
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Gilbert was full of praise for his new charge. “It was unbelievable, he broke Federer’s serve seven times and there was a lot of ebb and flow in the match,” he said. “It was a great win for the kid and, hopefully, that will just boost his confidence even more that he can play with anyone in the world.”
After struggling past Paradorn Srichaphan in the first round, Federer had said “I don’t have bad days”, but he was nowhere near his best yesterday.
“I think there comes a time when it’s kind of meant to be,” Murray said. “Federer winning against [Pete] Sampras at Wimbledon [in the fourth round in 2001], that’s when everybody looked at him and said, ‘This guy’s special.’ It [his win] is obviously not the same as beating him in a grand-slam. Just because I won this match doesn’t mean I am going to win as many grand-slams as him, not at all. But maybe now the other guys will see me as a contender for grand-slams.”
It is Federer’s earliest defeat in a tournament since he was beaten by Dominik Hrbaty, of Slovakia, in the first round here in 2004 and it was the first time he has lost in straight sets in a mammoth 194 matches.
“There’s no reason to be [disappointed] because I’m on an incredible run,” Federer said. “You always expect a loss once in a while. Why be disappointed if I win over 90 per cent of my matches?”
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Murray broke first and held to lead 3-1 before handing the break back in the sixth game. Neither man could hold serve thereafter, it seemed, and Murray was broken when serving for the set at 5-4. Federer double-faulted to give Murray another break and this time he held to move ahead.
Even Federer’s superhuman forehand was fallible as Murray broke for 1-0 in the second set, but the Swiss broke back immediately. Games went with serve until 3-3 when Murray broke again, but once more the Swiss broke back.
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That seemed as if it might be Murray’s last chance, but another framed forehand from Federer went out. After missing his first match point, Murray rifled a backhand down the line to secure victory and set up a match against either Dmitry Tursunov, of Russia, or Robby Ginepri, of the United States.
Murray said that Gilbert has been a hugely positive influence on him. “He basically said to me the most important thing was to believe and think that you had a shot of winning going into the match,” he said. “He’s probably the most positive guy that I’ve met. He’s always on good form. He’s never in a bad mood. I love people that are like that, that just enjoy life. So in that respect, he’s helped me a lot.”
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COACH CLASS
Since joining forces with Brad Gilbert, Murray has enjoyed an impressive run of form. His record under the American coach reads:
P12 W10 L2
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Legg Mason Classic, Washington
R2: beats Ramón Delgado (Par) 6-4, 6-3
R3: beats Feliciano López (Sp) 7-5, 6-2
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QF: beats Mardy Fish (US) 6-2, 6-4
SF: beats Dmitry Tursunov (Rus) 6-2, 7-5
F: loses to Arnaud Clément (Fr) 7-6, 6-2
Rogers Cup Masters Series, Toronto
R1: beats David Ferrer (Sp), the No 12 seed, 6-2, 7-6
R2: beats Tim Henman (GB) 6-2, 7-6
R3: beats Carlos Moyà (Sp), the former world No 1, 6-2, 6-4
QF: beats Jarkko Nieminen (Fin) 6-4, 6-7, 6-3
SF: loses to Richard Gasquet (Fr) 6-2, 7-5
Masters Series, Cincinnati
R1: beats Henman 4-6, 6-4, 7-5
R2: beats Roger Federer (Switz), the world No 1, 7-5, 6-4
BBC FAVOURITE
Andy Murray is the favourite to win the BBC TV Sports Personality of the Year Award. William Hill have slashed his odds from 8-1 to 2-1.
He is also 16-1 to win Wimbledon next year, 16-1 for this month’s US Open and 150-1 to win both. The young Scot’s odds to triumph in Cincinnati are 14-1.