Back and forth they go.
Matching Novak Djokovic win for win in an intense battle for the No. 1 ranking at the end of the year, Andy Murray survived the longest contest ever played at the O2 Arena on Wednesday afternoon. Murray bounced back from a set deficit and needed three hours and 20 minutes to outlast Kei Nishikori 6-7(9), 6-4, 6-4 during Group B round-robin competition at the World Tour Finals.
No match since the year-end championship moved to London in 2009 had required as much time. Murray vs. Nishikori was also the longest best-of-three hard-court match of this entire season.
“(I’m) a bit tired, obviously,” Murray admitted. “But you tend to feel it more the following day…in terms stiffness and soreness in the body. I was in the ice bath after the match…. I’m sure tomorrow I’ll be a bit sore.”
In a brutal opening set that lasted one hour and 25 minutes, four minutes shorter than the entire three-set tilt between Dominic Thiem and Gael Monfils on Tuesday, both men navigated through difficult service games to force a tiebreaker. Murray fought off a break point at 30-40 to hold for 6-5 before Nishikori saved a set point at 30-40 in the next game and held following a pair of deuces.
The ensuing tiebreaker was even more tense, with Murray putting his home fans through a roller-coaster of emotions. He recovered from an immediate mini-break only to lose serve twice in succession at 3-4 and 3-5. Seemingly down and out with Nishikori up triple set point and serving, Murray reeled off three points in a row. The world No. 1 won the 5-6 point in miracle fashion, answering what should have been a put-away backhand by the Japanese star with a winning backhand of his own.
Nishikori finally got through the tiebreaker 11 points to nine after squandering a total of four set points while saving set points at 6-7 and 9-8.
The end of the second set produced similar drama, albeit before another tiebreaker became necessary. Murray gave a break back at 4-3 but broke again in the ninth game despite Nishikori having two game points on his serve for a chance to hold for 5-4 and put himself within one game of victory. Instead, it was Murray who pocketed a 5-4 advantage and after thwarting two break chances for Nishikori he finally converted his third set point.
Nishikori appeared to be running out of gas early in the third set, as he surrendered serve at both 1-1 and 1-3–each time after going to deuce. Murray, on the other hand, held in lightning-quick fashion to extend his lead to 5-1, so there was no reason to think he would crack while trying to finish off his opponent at 5-2. But Nishikori suddenly found another gear and used a barrage of big groundstrokes–and a double-fault courtesy of Murray–to get one of the breaks back.
On his second chance to serve out the match, though, the Scot made no mistake and sealed the deal with love hold at 5-4.
“(I) think it was great match (by) both of us,” Nishikori reflected. “For me, (I) played really consistent; playing with good energy.”
“There was nothing really in it,” Murray said when asked what decided the outcome. “I think (in) the third set, obviously I got off to a quick start. I think the 2-1 game in the third set was very important. I had just broken him. It was a long game, that next one. When I won that, I think his head dropped for five minutes. I was up 5-1–just had a big enough lead to finish it off at 5-4.
“But he came back well; fought right to the end. He could have won in two sets, for sure. He was dictating many points. He had a number of chances.”
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Tivoed the Murray match…can’t wait to see that first set tb.
I;m finally getting to watch the match now. Both are mentally strong but Andy has a big physical advantage. I also think Andy and Novak are both in Kei’s head – he doesn’t quite make the shots and returns he makes vs most everyone else. He gets too anxious and tight. But he won the first set tb — which is what I wanna see too! Love both these guys.
Should be an interesting one tomorrow – Kei vs Marin.
Ratcliff…Hi,do you really think that Andy and Novak are both in Kei’s head?Somehow i feel it’s the other way around,it’s Kei in Andy’s head actually..That’s why he made so many uncharacteristic UE’s especially in the 1st set.I think the ‘GONG GATE’ still fresh in Andy’s head,we can see that he’s so nervous..He knows that Kei’s game can hurt him..and it didn’t help when he tried a DTL shots a few times and failed..And we can see that his confidence start wavered a little bit after that..And Kei even punished him a couple of times with his deadly forehand when Andy gave him a few short balls..
Kei lost due to Murray’s (and Djoko’s) physical edge. I doubt they are in Kei’s head, as he had beaten them a few times in the past, the most recent being the USO QF vs Murray.
It’s Rafa that’s the greatest ”stumbling block” for Kei and that’s why Kei was just so happy when he beat Rafa at Montreal last year and was so determined to beat Rafa at the Olympics this year (even using a 12 mins toilet break perhaps to take a breather).
It’s obvious to me that the first set had taken a lot out of Kei (1 hr 22mins?) that he couldn’t continue with the winning momentum into the second set. Once Kei lost the second set I knew he would lose the match as it’s obvious Kei went for more in the third set and hence mis-hit many shots. When everything else failed, Murray knew he still could just hang in there and outlast Kei.
Kei doesn’t have a big serve,that could be his weakness .