Loading ...Federer vs Murray Australian Open 4th Set Analysis
The 2013 Australian Open is history but I don’t feel like it being history just yet. When I made my post match write up of the Federer/Murray match I didn’t analyze the very interesting 4th set properly, because I fell asleep at that stage of the match. I did however write about it in my follow up post. After that post Vily posted the following Youtube video in a comment:
I really appreciated that because it showed pretty much everything I missed, and the post match highlights did a terrible job of the 4th set. For one they didn’t show that Roger got broken at 5-5 and that Murray served for the match at 6-5. I felt like making a post about this set with the Australian Open still fresh in our memory, and because it was probably the most interesting set in the match, if not the tournament(although I’m sure Djokovic and Wawrinka would have something to say about that). It was a somewhat controversial set because of that incident where Roger psyched Murray. That was also the turning point of the set. The highlights begin at 4-4 where Murray plays an unreal defensive point and a ridiculous lob to go up 15-0 on Roger’s serve. Roger then nets a forehand to go down 0-30. Now he is under pressure.
He hits his way out of trouble with some attacking forehands however and ends up holding serve. 5-4. Can Roger break serve to win the 4th set? Not even close. Murray holds serve to love and the pressure is back on Roger. He then goes down 0-30 on serve again, but this time there is no fightback as he gets broken to love. I actually remember falling asleep right as this point. I was really struggling to stay awake now, and when he dropped serve there I was almost certain it was over. That is what makes this such a remarkable set, because Roger found a way to come back into the set and the match. Yes, not everyone likes how he did it. But the fact remains: it worked. I’m not gonna choose sides here. I’m gonna play the role of the reporter here. You can decide for yourself whether what he did was ok or not.
All I’m gonna say is that psyching has always been part of professional sports. It is not against the rules. Besides, it is not like Roger does this all the time. I can just speak for myself. For me it was ok. He has psyched Murray in the press before, like for instance before their Australian Open final in 2010. It clearly had an effect on Murray because Roger won in straight sets. Even in the 3rd set when Murray came the closest to winning a set, he looked scared and became defensive. How different is that Murray from the one Roger faced here?! It’s like a boy became a man. However, since Roger used these kind of tactics to get under Murray’s skin before, it was worth another go. It was the only way he was going to win the set anyway. Murray was serving for the match and he had to do something drastic if things were going to turn around.
It is just the winning instinct. In professional sports you do what you gotta do to win, within the rules of the sport of course. Psyching is not against the rules. Mental warfare was always a part of tennis. It used to be much worse. In recent years the players have become a bit more professional and ‘soft’. But there is no doubt it is still out there. I don’t mind it personally. I find it entertaining. Now people may accuse me of having double standards because I have criticized a lot of Nadal’s mind games. To that I say that I don’t like the way Nadal uses mind games. I don’t like it because he uses it all the time, while Roger uses it only as last resort. Against Murray he knew it was his last throw of the dice, and it worked. For Nadal mind games start at the coin toss when he makes his opponent wait for him at the net and then jumps up and down in front of him at the net.
Roger usually makes his racquet do the talking. He only uses psyching when his racquet failed him, which is very seldom indeed. Nadal also uses time wasting, coaching from the stands, and injury time outs to unnerve his opponents, the first two of which is illegal. Taking injury time outs at crucial junctures in the match when it is not needed should be illegal as well, but I guess the umpires let it go, just like they do with the time wasting and coaching from the stands. You see Nadal is always bending the rules, and in some cases blatantly breaking them. Roger does not do that. He is a very fair player. He was clearly trying to psyche Murray and wasn’t trying to make any secret of it. There are also no rules that I am aware of against psyching. He just did something which has been done for ages in professional tennis.
It all happened on the first point of the game as Murray served for the match. Roger hit a deep backhand drive cross court that must have been on the line. It is hardly noticeable but Murray hesitated for a split second about the call that didn’t come. He continued with the point, Roger hit a forehand approach, and got passed down the line by Murray. That was the point at which the incident occurred. You don’t see much of it in the video, but Roger tells Murray something along the lines of ‘Fucking stop!’ or ‘You fucking stopped!’. Murray first reacts like a kid whose favorite toy was just confiscated. Then his expression changes to ‘Oh, so that’s the way it’s gonna be’, which is not shown in the video either. Even though Murray pulls that face the incident clearly affected him. On the next point he misses a strange slice backhand long from an attacking position in the court.
Roger smells blood. Murray however comes up with a well placed slice serve and goes up 30-15. Roger is now only two points from exiting the slam. Murray then comes up with another well placed slice serve but Roger makes a great stretch return to get him back in the point. Roger continues to play a terrific point to even things up at 30-30. Now he is only two points away from being back in the match. The next point is just gorgeous as Roger makes two fantastic defensive shots and then comes up with a scorcher of a backhand winner down the line. Just an absolute beauty. Break point! Murray then comes up with a first serve and Roger hits a a kind of reflex backhand slice return which catches Murray off guard, as he steers the forehand wide. Break! Roger is now right back in it and the momentum is on his side after making the great escape.
Almost expectedly Murray then kind of implodes in the tie break. Roger also hits one monster return of serve as if to rub it in. He had gotten into Murray’s head once again. There was no doubt about it. Was it the turning point in the match? I bet it was the question on many people’s minds. It certainly would have been my guess if I was still awake. But Murray quickly puts the incident behind him and Roger seemed to be spent. It was a sure sign that Murray had matured as a player. He wasn’t gonna let that incident cost him the match, even though it had already cost him a set. It would have been easy for him to get into a negative mindset after that incident, but it is like he just forgot about it when the 5th set started. So you gotta hand it to him. From Roger’s point of view he showed great fight to win the fourth set after he looked down and out.
The way in which he fought back may seem questionable to some, but as far as I’m concerned it was perfectly legitimate and within the rules of the sport and it’s traditions. It’s not like he committed a crime people! This is sport and you do what you gotta do to win within the rules. Simple as that. Well I hope you enjoyed that little trip down memory lane with me. I am now ready to put this Australian Open well and truly behind me. It was a very positive tournament from Roger’s point of view and I have high hopes for him in 2013. He has as good a chance to win another slam as anyone. We have already been having some interesting discussions about the French Open on my blog. Just because Roger is not playing a tournament doesn’t mean this blog is going to sleep!
Reader Comments
Great post, I have always enjoyed Roger psyching his opponents. He does it with such finesse and to me is perfectly legal. Rather him doing this then fake MTO or weird timing of toilet breaks and etc. 4th set was indeed clutch stuff from Roger even though Mugray was serving for the match and again the tie-break – absolutely brilliant play from the GOAT. Too bad he ran out of steam on the 5th. I was hoping for him to meet Djoker in the final. The positives from this match – he is 5-0 at TB. I do hope more positives thing come out this. Btw I read that Nadal has not fully recover from his knee problems. I can’t help but wonder will this impact him in his RG title defense this year. Djoker will definitely take advantage of this and try to win 2nd GS for this year. Wow, possible calendar slam for Djoker, this is driving me crazy just to think of it.
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Ru-an Reply:
February 1st, 2013 at 4:14 pm
Interesting points Dippy. Roger has been very good in tie breaks over his career, so yes he is clutch. Actually he has the best tie break record of all time! So he is definitely clutch. He does however have a pretty dismal 5 set record. I counted 3 times that he lost 6-2 in the 5th set too. Nadal AO ’09, Delpo USO ’09, and Murray AO ’13. I think he is very clutch but just not a grinder. He does get tired over mentally draining 5 set matches.
As for Djoker’s calendar slam it’s highly unlikely to happen and still a long way to go. Djokovic of 2011 was better than he is now and even then he couldn’t do it. We could have four different slam winners this year again. Djokovic AO, Nadal FO, Murray Wimby, and Roger USO.
Oh and Roger was 6-0 in tie breaks for the AO.
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Manu Reply:
February 2nd, 2013 at 2:50 am
Yes one thing you’ve got to give Roger credit without a doubt has been the way he’s layed tiebreaks.
I think that the fact that Murray served first in the 5th had quite a big role in his win. If (this is just an if, though) Roger had served first and held without any pressure, who knows? Murray might have yielded.
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Come on Ruan.. surely this small incident didn’t require a blog post as such…i mean these are professional players and if just saying an f-word on court or saying something in press conf makes them psyched then they dont deserve to be a top player…u cannot just crumble mentally just because ur opponent said some words….
And pls if someone thinks saying an f-word on court is a crime then Serena must be totally banned for her outburst on a referee isn’t it? An f-word on court is pretty common in sports these days, just watch cricket or football for that matter
Also this is not the first time Roger has reacted angrily on court when he sees something that’s not right he does react like shouting at Djokovic’s corner saying keep quit or saying to the crowd to shutup, basically Roger gets irritated when the point is interrupted unnecessarily or he is distracted…in this murray surely distracted by trying to challenge and they again started to play…
On another note your countryman and your look alike :-) Graeme Smith is making is 100th appearance as South Africa’s captain today against Pakistan on his b’day…you should be proud of what he has done for South African cricket…
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Muhammad Reply:
February 1st, 2013 at 10:37 am
Biff,as they call him now,is a legend.He truly deserves a WC victory for his nation.
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Ru-an Reply:
February 1st, 2013 at 4:17 pm
This post wasn’t exclusively about the incident Suhas. If it was I would have made the subject of the post about it. It was an analysis of the interesting 4th set, just like the subject says. And yes psyching does work, or else it wouldn’t be used. It worked against Murray for a set, but he got over it so he deserves to be a top player. He is a top player so he deserves to be one.
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Manu Reply:
February 2nd, 2013 at 2:52 am
Who are you supporting, Suhas? SA or Pakistan?
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Suhas Reply:
February 2nd, 2013 at 6:28 am
SA
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Off topic but worth to mention I think.
Djokovic is complaining is complaining about the state of the clay courts in Charleroi Belgium where he will play the Davis Cup tie against My fellow country men.
Last year in Madrid he was complaining about the blue clay. Now Chareloi in Belgium.
Rochus reacts and does seem to disagree with Novak. He says Novak is acting like a spoiled br… who has forgotten the time that he couldn’t always play on central court of the events he’s participating in.
Steve is very right when he emphasis at times that there is only one top player that doesn’t complain about these sort of things, and that player is Roger Federer.
http://fr.sports.yahoo.com/news/tennis-davis-djokovic-plaint-surface-191609830.html
http://www.dhnet.be/sports/tennis/article/423192/rochus-novak-est-habitue-a-jouer-sur-le-central.html
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Ru-an Reply:
February 1st, 2013 at 4:18 pm
True Wilfried. Roger is just more classy than that. A real champion gets on with the job and doesn’t complain. It is classless and unprofessional from Djokovic.
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jason Reply:
February 2nd, 2013 at 3:29 pm
It will be more interesting if he gets some sort of injury on that court. In a way, it would prove his statement…and on the other side it’s a pyrrhic victory
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Great read Ru-an.Its interesting you brought up this issue of nadal’s gamesmanship because its been awhile since we saw both on court.I found an article way back in 2008 after nadal defeated wimbledon written by RIYAAN BOOYSEN and what led me itno it was the title-Federer vs Nadal-The Greatest vs The Not So Great and this just pulled me into it.its a pdf file consisiting of 15 pages and i wuold like u and all others over here to read it. I will post the link-
http://www.riaanbooysen.com/FederervsNadal-theGreatestvstheNotSoGreat.pdf
It is a great article and gives solutions to the problem of taking medical timeouts,etc and i would like u to to probably make a post regarding that issue after reading this article.hope u like it and yes we all are wide awake to comment here even when fed is not playing at the moment.
V
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Ru-an Reply:
February 1st, 2013 at 6:48 pm
That looks like a great read V. It’s long so I will have to read it when I have time. Also, check out this great analysis of the Fedal 2012 AO semi made by Wilfried. I’m gonna post a link to it in my next post too: http://ruansfedererblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/The-Federer-NAdal-match-in-the-Australian-Open-2012.docx.pdf
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V Reply:
February 2nd, 2013 at 4:22 am
Nice job,Wilfried. Great Analysis and thx ruan for posting the link.it does show that when fed’s serve is off,his entire game just disintegrates at the most inopportune moments and to me in that match as the analysis show,the important thing was 1st server percentage -50%
If it had been over 65%,then i am sure Fed would have won it.the point is that Fed always starts like an express train but against nadal,he slowly loses his momentum and gradually allows nadal back into the match which i am not able to understand why.One possible reason may be that he is focussing too much on his slightly weaker bh and just ignores slightly his fh which is not only resulting in more fh errors for fed,but also putting pressure is his own service games.what you guys say??
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Roger was up a break in the 4th set and I think if he’d been able to win the set 6-3 without being broken back, he would have had a much better shot in the 5th. Nevertheless, he returns he hit at 6-6 30-15 and 30-40 were out of this world. Also, Fed’s record in tiebreaks this year is 6-0, not 5-0. One against Tomic and Raonic, and two against Tsonga and Murray.
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Hey Guys! And Hey Ru-an! I am glad that you were able to dissect the 4th set in detail.
To me, Roger was pissed that he couldn’t close the set earlier as he should have and then after he got broken at 5:5 he didn’t want to go out the same way he went out last year against Nadal.
I didn’t think that the incident was such a big deal either. I was just so impressed with the first serve returns that Roger made there to get back into the match.
The thing about Roger, and this is off-topic is that he just plays his best tennis when his back is against the wall. It occurred against Nadal at Wimbledon in the 4th set tiebreak in 2008, it occurred also against Murray this year. It occurred in that epic semi-final in the Olympics against Del Potro last year. It almost happened against Nadal in last year’s AO semi as well.
In any case, Roger is amazing at those comebacks but they take so much out of him that he does get burned out mentally and physically.
That is why there was a dilemma in the beginning of both the 3rd and 5th sets. Should he take a bathroom break or not?! Sometimes you wanna reset for 4 minutes before you start that last set.
Sometimes though even if you are tired, you hope that the opponent is really rattled after losing the set and you hope that you can snatch an early break. I think that Roger was hopping for the latter to occur even though he might have benefitted from a small break himself.
In any case, whatever happened happened. I still feel that if he didn’t expand as much energy against Tsonga, it might have been a 4 set victory for Roger.
That’s why I feel good about it because at the end of the day Slams are won by one’s ability but also by the luck of the draw.
We’ve seen it many times before so it’s not the first time.
Nevertheless. I’ll be very curious to see where Roger’s motivation is at this point. Obviously, getting back to Number 1 will be almost impossible. So, will Roger just forego these other tournaments and just go for the Slams? Or will he stay hungry and add to his trophy cabinet so that he can stay positive and have his confidence.
I don’t expect him to repeat at Indian Wells but I’ll be curious if he can defend his Rotterdam and Dubai trophies. Especially, in Dubai it will be interesting should Djokovic and Roger meet if it will be one way traffic or if JesusFed shows up. It would show me that Roger still very much wants to fight and that would a very positive thing for the upcoming months and Slams!
Allez Roger! :-)
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As far as the Oz Open, the draw played a big part towards the outcome. I can’t cry over spilled milk but what if Fed had Ferrer in the semis.
I went to the Davis Cup tie between Canada and Spain. I know Spain did not bring their best players but what a moment for Canadian tennis. Dancevic played the match of his career. Now it’s on to play Italy in April.
Also, the doubles match between Switzerland and Czech was insane…7 hours.
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Hi Ru-an and all the other Roger fans:
Remember me??? Katyani, a diehard Roger fan from Holland who discovered your site on 17th Dec last year? I hope you will know who I am.
If I am correct I wrote my last comment om 10th Jan.
I said that my vacation was over and that I would not have as much time to leave comments, but that I would try to keep up. Well unfortunately that did not happen and to be completely honest, I haven’t posted a comment after Roger lost AO. I just started last Thursday on Jonathan’s site I think. I am sorry for not leaving a comment for almost a month, but I was so disappointed at the AO loss. Not at Roger !!! Because he was amazing and he played SO good while having almost the impossible draw. No, I am proud of Roger and what he accomplished at AO. I am just disappointed that he did not win AO, because he deserved to win it. Last year he lost AO SF to Rafa and look what he accomplished the rest of the year. So I am hopeful for the rest of the year. He played really well at AO. He is not dominating anymore, but at age 31, he is number 2 and he is playing like a 21 year old. Yes, he does get tired and he sweats more, but it is unbelievable how he plays.
This year most of his fans count him out for RG and Wimby and say that his best chance of winning a GS is US Open. Why? I really believe he will do almost anything (always legal) to win Wimby. And I think he realises this is maybe his best chance to win RG. So don’t count him out there.
Well Ru-an, I spent my Sunday today reading ALL the articles and comments made that I did not read. Do you know how much that is? It cost me several hours, but it was worth it. Again I am sorry it took so long for me to comment, but I will try to keep up more. Will be difficult with work and stuff, but I love your site so I will do that.
Tomorrow ATP Rotterdam is going to start. I wanted to go to the final, but it was sold out a long time ago. Now I will try to see another match.
Hoping he will wear orange (our colour) and that he will win.
I saw that the last comment made on this article was on 4th feb, so I hope you get to read my comment.
Greetings from Katyani from Holland (the same country the Goat is in).
Loving and respecting Roger yesterday, today, tomorrow and for eternity.
Ps: Ru-an, you said in an early article that if fans of Roger did not like him saying the F-word, they were not Roger fans to begin with. Well Ru-an, I have news for you, it will take a hell lot of him swearing for me to dislike Roger or be disappointed in him !!! To tell you the truth, I thought it was funny, because really he cannot look or act mad. It is not in his nature, so when he tries to do something to look mad, it just looks so funny. I just love him more when he does that. It means he still HATES losing, he still is not ready to leave the game and to retire and that he IS human. If people stop beeing his fan for getting angry once every few years, then none of the other players would have fans anymore.
Do you know the Rotterdam final was sold out somewhere in december?? That is how popular he is.
Trust me, it will take a lot more for me and other Roger die hard fans to stop beeing his fan.
Ps: Ru-an…………….you changed that picture at the top bar? The picture where he looks EXTREMELY handsome !!!
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OmG!!!! What a tragedy! LOl!
Nadal goes all the way to the final in both singles and doubles and loses. He loses both finals??!!!! What a choker!
Lol!!! Didn’t expect that in a thousand years…
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Ruan. Quick we are waiting for your posts.i am tired of reading baseless,cluless,classless articles on br.it seems any one cast post over ther and the standards are absolutely ridiculous.see this one sample-http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1525419-roger-federer-bold-predictions-for-tennis-icon-in-remaining-2013-grand-slams
W/o even know in gthe dras and their forms,he is predicting nadal to win both FO and wimby.funny given the fact that he has been beaten by only he 3rd player in clay finals and he has lost both his finals and they say he is already in championship form??are the kidding us or what??and the most ridiculos thing is that fed will lose to nadal in wimby final.lol given the fact that nadal is coming of an injury layoff and given that fed is defending champion and has a 2-1 h2h over nadal on grass,this is pretty much a useless article
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Nadal is complaining again about the hardcourts and the 25-second rule. What a selfish little prick he has become in recent years. It’s always about him. He wants less hardcourts and more clay courts so he can do better. Hell, he thinks he’ll be a broken man when his career is over. Pretty sure Andre and Pete are still playing charity tennis events and they were pure hardcourt players (besides grass for Pete). And he thinks 25 seconds between points is too short, give me a break. Fed plays 20 seconds between points at max and has done so his entire career – no matter whether he’s playing a one-hour match or a 4 hour one. Seriously, it’s so sickening to see Rafa complain all the time about these things. It’s fans and analysts alike who want to see faster pace (and likely many players).
The bottom line is that Rafa has nobody to blame but himself for all his injury problems. It’s not the hardcourts, it’s the way he plays. Djokovic has remained very healthy throughout his career and he is a HC specialist.
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Hi all! Federer has won his first round in Rotterdam quite comfortably. He looks well-rested and I hope he can use the indoor court to go all the way and defend his title.
Looking forward to your next post, Ru-an. I am optimistic that with his skipping Miami, that he can put in a solid training block in preparation for the clay season. Freed of the need to worry about pacing himself for the Olympics, I think he will be able to make an even stronger showing there than he did last year.
For a player of 31 years who didn’t play a warm-up, making the AO semis is pretty impressive. Once he has some more match play under his belt, he should have a better idea of where his game is.
His current goals are to defend the three hardcourt titles he won last spring. I don’t think he’s defended a Masters title since winning Cincinnati in 2010, so winning IW again would be pretty special if he could manage it. But right now I just hope he can do well in Rotterdam.
Go Roger!
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