US Open 2021: Andy Murray is Back
My thoughts on Andy Murray's outstanding performance in his first round loss to Stefanos Tsitsipas at the US Open, including an analysis of his game and a word on the controversies of the match.
As the dust continues to settle on one of the matches of the season, I thought I’d chime in with my own wee thoughts on what happened.
On Monday evening, Andy Murray lost to Stefanos Tsitsipas in the first round of the US Open.
Most were expecting an easy win for Tsitsipas but Andy played his heart out, nearly clinching a near five-hour epic.
Here’s how I’d like to walk you through the match:
The play: Murray’s level of play and his strategy in his efforts against the #3 seed.
The clickbait: An unbiased discussion on Murray’s sweaty shoes and Tsitsipas’s toilet break.
Right, let’s get started!
US Open Round of 128: Stefanos Tsitsipas defeats Andy Murray 2-6 7-6 (7) 3-6 6-3 6-4
It really was an epic.
At four hours and 49 minutes, it was the fifth longest match of Murray’s career, for Tsitsipas, the second1.
A lot happened over that time but I’d like to talk you through some of the ways Murray was almost able to defeat the Greek God.
Murray’s Serve
The first thing that was immediately obvious watching this match? Andy was serving incredibly well.
For the first three sets at least, Andy was consistently reaching first serve speeds over 125mph. He didn’t try to exploit the Tsitsipas backhand on his first serve, rather he kept Tsitsipas guessing and was able to win a lot of free points using it.
Here’s how Andy’s serve compared to Stefanos’s in terms of free points.
Obviously, the respective return abilities of the two players even these stats out somewhat but this is still a massive deal - a couple of months ago at Wimbledon, Murray didn’t quite hit these numbers.
On the second serve, Murray arguably served as well as he could.
An average of 90mph is a pacey serve for Murray and he often rolled the dice with a bigger delivery, whilst also able to keep his double fault count to a minimum.
Overall, this sort of pace and the sturdiness of the second serve are uncharacteristic of Murray, even at his peak.
Very, very encouraging signs.
Big from the Baseline
Murray showed he’s still got what it takes to play very dangerously from the baseline.
There was the backhand, of course - Murray was unafraid of trading backhands cross-court with the young Greek, a tactic others have tried but failed to execute quite as well. It’s difficult to do this against Tsitsipas because:
Tsitsipas’s backhand is solid as a rock. He rarely misses and gets decent depth on the shot. Getting a short ball from him is tough.
Tsitsipas likes to take the backhand down the line. It’s a pattern of play he’s practiced a million times and, consequently, he’s quite good at it!
Why is it a good play for Murray? Murray’s backhand is quicker and lower than most so redirecting the ball down the line is not as easy for Tsitsipas and, in a cross-court exchange, Murray’s backhand is arguably more solid than the world #3’s.
The most surprising shot, however, was the forehand.
It was seriously good.
2012/2013 nostalgia bubbled within me throughout the match. Murray hit his forehand better than he has in a long time. Adding the performance of the two shots together actually, I’d go as far as saying this is the best level I’ve seen from Murray at the baseline in four years.
Channeling Novak
No, not the return (though that alone was leagues better than it had been against Tiafoe in Winston-Salem).
Back in July, I analysed Djokovic’s final against Matteo Berrettini. In that final, I came to the conclusion that Djokovic very frequently wound up at the net on pressure points (0-30, 15-30, 30-30, 40-40 and any break points on either serve).
Murray did exactly the same thing in this match.
Here’s some stats on Murray’s serve to prove my point.
Throughout the match, Murray approached the net on 11% of his total service points played.
On pressure service points, Murray approached the net 21% of the time.
Understandably not as much as Djokovic on a grass court but he was twice as likely to arrive at the net on a pressure service point than he would have been in an average service point.
How successful was this strategy? Murray dropped just one of the eight net pressure points he played on serve.
Murray’s skills at the net are so darn good, it’s no wonder he employs this strategy - don’t be surprised if you see Murray at the net when things get squeaky in any future matches!2
Okay, now for the trashy stuff.
The Clickbait
The headlines are all about the trivial happenings of the match rather than the outstanding performances from both players. A shame but here’s my brief take on the things the media are focusing on.
#Shoegate
This one will be short and sweet as there wasn’t much to it.
Andy’s shoes were saturated with sweat in the second set tiebreak. He only had one pair of shoes with him so he didn’t change them during the tiebreak. At a crucial juncture, Andy slipped reaching for a volley.
Would he have won the point?
I honestly don’t think he would have.
Should a professional tennis player have a change of clothes with them on-court, especially if the conditions are likely to lead to their clothes being soaked?
Yes! Definitely!
As I say though, no harm, no foul, I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t have made a difference to the match…
Pretty sure…
The Toilet Break
Flushing Meadows, Poo York, Stefanos Tshits-won’t-pas.
Whichever trashy-toilet-title you’ve picked for your tabloid, the bottom3 line is this - it’s not as big a story as it should be.
For those of you that wouldn’t click on any of the above headlines, let me fill you in. At the beginning of the fifth set, Tsitsipas went to the bathroom to change his clothes and relieve himself. All in all, it was about seven or eight minutes before Tsitsipas returned to the court.
Meanwhile, Andy was apoplectic4. He complained to Gerry Armstrong, the on-court supervisor, about the length of time Tsitsipas was taking, accusing him of “cheating” (in the heat of the moment).
Speaking afterwards, he did recognise the break was within the rules of the match but did say this:
“When you're playing a brutal match like that, you know, stopping for seven, eight minutes, you do cool down. You can prepare for it mentally as much as you like, but it's the fact that it does affect you physically when you take a break that long, well, multiple times during the match… right now sitting here I feel like it's nonsense and they need to make a change because it's not good for the sport, it's not good for TV, it's not good for fans."
Here’s the most important section of the rule from the official Grand Slam rule book.
“A player may request permission to leave the court for a reasonable time for a toilet break, a change of attire break, or both, but for no other reason. Toilet breaks should be taken on a set break and change of attire breaks must be taken on a set break. In singles events a player is entitled to one (1) break during a best of three (3) set match and two (2) breaks during a best of five (5) set match… In all cases, the nearest assigned bathroom must be used. The player is expected to have needed attire available on court.”
Andy’s got a point - seven or eight minutes is a pretty long time in such a long match and he definitely could have been feeling the physical effects of the break when Tsitsipas was finally ready to play.
But the rule only states a reasonable time to finish up so there didn’t appear to be any grounds for penalty. What’s a reasonable time? Is seven or eight minutes unreasonable to take a dump and change your clothes? Maybe???
I’m not so much pissed off with the potential rule breaking from Tsitsipas; I’m more annoyed that Tsitsipas seemed very naive in his press conference - no apology, no recognition he possibly took longer than necessary, just shock and horror that Andy was in any way incensed. He might have had a legitimate reason for taking that long and if so, I can live with that - he’s a smart guy though, so to brush the whole thing off doesn’t really fly with me.
Anyway, bigger picture, it really is bad for the sport. People have short attention spans5 and this sort of break really tests the public’s patience. Some sort of penalty should be in place if a player really does have to go to the bathroom - a warning, a point penalty, whatever.
Here’s the headline from the Guardian and the BBC, respectively.
Which do you think is better? These sorts of stories give tennis media a bad name and rightly so. We can do without this shite getting drawn out, instead focusing on what a fantastic match this was. Let the governing bodies of tennis sort this stuff out behind the scenes (eventually) rather than whipping the public up into a frenzy.
And honestly? This sort of tweet isn’t helping anybody.
Sorry Andy but let’s focus on your brilliant match. Let it go man…
… who am I kidding? He was never one to let sleeping dogs lie!
The Future
Let’s put the controversies to one side for a moment.
Andy played a blinder - he’s still sharp as a tac (far more tactically aware than a lot of the up-and-comers) and, most importantly, he’s still able to play electric tennis, better than I thought he was capable of.
If he can bring this sort of level into the next few tournaments, Andy could be set for some brilliant results - Shanghai, Vienna and Beijing in particular could be very fruitful for him, not to mention Indian Wells might have a reduced roster this year given its awkward spot in the calendar (given the conditions in California though, I wouldn’t prioritise Indian Wells over the other three).
Overall, I'm ecstatic. I’d been talking doubles career prospects, potential as a pundit etc. but Andy’s done what he’s always done.
He’s silenced the doubters.
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Murray: 2016 Davis Cup loss to Del Potro (5 hrs 7 mins), 2016 Davis Cup win against Nishikori (4 hrs 54 mins), 2012 US Open win against Djokovic (4 hrs 54 mins), 2012 Australian Open loss to Djokovic (4 hrs 50 mins).
Tsitsipas: 2019 French Open loss to Stan Wawrinka (5 hrs, 9 mins).
On a side note, it’s very interesting to see the old boys at the net when the pressure is on. I’ll need to make an article comparing the frequency of net approaches of the old guard vs the Next-Gen e.g. are the up-and-comers worse at the net?
No pun intended!
It wouldn’t be an Andy match without him focusing on the seemingly innocuous (see Australian Open 2013, Australian Open 2015, US Open 2016).
Speaking of, let’s wrap this toilet break nonsense up soon.