The last time they met, Andy Murray thought the score was “embarrassing”. The last time they met, Murray had to cheer up Kim, then his fiancée and now his wife, afterwards – she was far more upset about the result than he was. And the last time they met, Murray won just one game.
Murray’s memories of playing one Roger Federer, then, are mixed. Yes, he beat the Swiss to win Olympic gold here in 2012 but, yes, he did take a 6-0, 6-1 hammering from the old GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) at the ATP World Tour Finals in London last November. Now they face each other in the semi-finals of The Championships. And Federer has never lost a semi-final in SW19.
They have played 23 times before with Federer just edging that rivalry 12-11, thanks to that thrashing at the end of last year. Federer has dropped just the one set and been broken only once in his run this year (and, no, those two events did not occur in the same match) and he is looking awfully good.
World Tour Finals, he came in tired... I think when I played him, he was a bit cooked... It was not the Andy that usually shows up
Murray, though, is looking confident, relaxed and strong. He has had a couple of minor wobbles on his route to the last four – two sets dropped, a little dip in form and concentration in the third round – but apart from that, he has moved like greased lightning, he has gone for his returns and he has used his backhand like a rapier. He is ready for Fed. So what happened in November that he should have been so soundly beaten?
“I was actually quite calm after that match,” he said. “A lot of people in my team, people around me, were very, very worried by that match. I felt quite calm about it. It was obviously embarrassing, the scoreline.
“When I lost at the O2, Kim was more upset than I was. I spoke to her then and tried to explain to her what was going on. I tried to explain to her and to make her feel better, by telling her what was going on.
“She's obviously been around tennis a lot. But people who watched that match could go, like, 'Oh my God, he's so far away [from his game], and what the hell's going on?' But, as a player, I knew what was happening and I was actually more calm than anyone in my team. And when I was talking to people about what was happening, I felt like I knew.”
What Murray knew and the rest of the world didn’t appreciate was that he had had little time to work on his game last year. The comeback from surgery to his ailing back at the end of 2013 had taken a good six months and by the time he was feeling more like his old self, he was in the thick of the US Open and trying to qualify for the end-of-year finals. At the same time, his team were not getting along so he needed to sort out his on-court work and his off-court personnel and all would be well. A lot of hard work in the off-season would sort him out.
Sure enough, he has been back to his best – and better, he thinks – this year. Reaching the Australian Open final got him started and he followed that up with the best clay-court season of his career. Winning the title at Queen’s Club began his grass-court run and he is now through to his sixth Wimbledon semi-final.
With Murray in that sort of form, Federer knows he can take little comfort from his easy win last year. Indeed, he referred to their upcoming semi-final as “crunch time”. He has played extremely well so far but, as yet, no one has had the wherewithal to push him. Murray will be different. After all, the Murray who walloped him in the Olympic final was a very different man to the one who surrendered so tamely at The O2. And Federer expects to be playing the Olympic Murray, the former Wimbledon and US Open champion Murray, for a place in this year’s final.
“I thought Andy played as good of a final as you can play,” Federer said of their Olympic showdown. “I never really had a chance. Don't remember even if I had break points or chances in the second. Honestly, it all went by so quickly. He was just better. That was it. But there was nothing I could really do.
“Then I thought World Tour Finals, he came in tired. He had won three tournaments back‑to‑back‑to‑back. He left everything out there, making the World Tour Finals. I think when I played him, he was a bit cooked, to be honest. I played a great match, but it was not the Andy that usually comes up and shows up.”
If the usual Federer and the usual Murray turn up this time around, we should be in for a cracker.
