Ivan Lendl has been with Andy Murray for all his greatest achievements in tennis. So, when he saw what everyone else saw during some down moments at this US Open, he urged him to “give it everything you’ve got”.
Murray was not sleeping well but could not figure out what was wrong. Probably, it was the weight of work he has put in this summer, making seven finals in a row, winning Wimbledon again and then a second Olympic gold medal. The physical and mental strain must be immense.
Yet, in the toughest assignment of his first four matches, Murray found his championship best to wipe the court with Grigor Dimitrov, who had won their last match and who had put him out of Wimbledon two years ago.
“I chatted to the team after the last match [when he dropped a set against the lightly regarded but solid Italian Paolo Lorenzi], because I was a little bit flat on the court,” Murray said after giving up just five games against the talented Bulgarian.
“I hadn’t been sleeping great here, just didn’t feel great the last few days. I chatted to Ivan and Jamie [Delgado, his assistant coach] and it was, like: ‘Look, you’ve got a few days left here; give it everything you’ve got. Let’s be professional as possible, work hard in practice, and go out there and fight, give everything you’ve got in the matches. There’s a break coming soon.’
“That was an important chat to have because I definitely was a little bit flat a couple of days ago and I definitely couldn’t afford to let that happen [against Dimitrov].”
Murray is at a loss to explain why he has struggled to sleep well but one long snooze seems to have helped – he saw only about 10 minutes of Kyle Edmund’s match against Novak Djokovic the previous night.
“Sleep’s the most important thing, I think. It’s not easy but you try not to stress about matches, thinking about matches the whole day and wasting a lot of nervous energy as well. You need to save as much as you can for the match court.
“But just now, it’s sleeping really. For me, I normally have no issues sleeping, but I’ve slept badly here and I felt way better after getting a proper night’s sleep.
“The hotel’s been pretty quiet. I never have problems sleeping. So I don’t know. People say when you are pretty tired and you’re putting pressure on yourself, you need a good night’s sleep, but when you wake up, toss and turn in the bed …
“So last night helped – and also I don’t know if it’s been because of the Labor Day weekend, but it’s been much quieter. There’s no noise in the city, really. Maybe that helped.”
On such niceties grand slam titles can turn. Against Lorenzi, Murray was lacklustre, struggling to cope with his stubborn opponent’s last-ball tennis. Against Dimitrov, a player of considerably greater talent, he came to life, winning 6-1, 6-2, 6-2. The world No2 is determined to stay at that level in the quarter-final against Kei Nishikori on Wednesday. What stood out in his whirlwind victory against Dimitrov was the strength and consistency of his serve, which had been almost anaemic in the first two sets against Lorenzi.
“It depends a little on the player. I used the serve to the backhand a lot more than maybe I would against a guy with a double-handed backhand. That’s why the average would have been up.
“Normally you serve a little bit more split to the spots. But I served the majority on the deuce court up the T. I started serving that way and it was working. Normally throughout a match, a player will make an adjustment on that, but it kept working, so I kept doing it. That’s why the average speed was up, and there was no reason for me to change.”
Murray revealed he has been hugely lifted this tournament by the success of the other British players – two of whom, Edmund and Dan Evans, will join him in the Great Britain team to play Argentina in the semi-finals of the Davis Cup in Glasgow, on the weekend after the final here.
“British tennis is doing well, and that makes me happy. It’s nice being surrounded by more British players, because that hasn’t been the case for a long time at these events. Often after the first couple of days you’re on your own with just your team. But here, my brother’s still in, obviously Dan and Kyle have been in, seeing them around, their coaches and stuff.
“Leon [Smith, the Davis Cup captain] is about. It’s just nice that there’s more positivity about British tennis. There hasn’t been that for a long time. Kyle and Dan, especially, can keep going higher. With Dan, it’s been slightly unexpected. The ability has always been there but now he’s almost in the top 50 in the world, and this time last year he was more like 700. It’s great. It just makes me happy.”
Smith said yesterday: “It’s no surprise taking five. I’ll wait for the players to arrive and see what state they are in. They’ve played a lot of tennis this summer. We’ll have to see how Andy is here, to see if we stick with three singles players and a doubles player and bring in Dom [Inglot] for one of them. Those options are open.”
Smith, who has known Murray since he was a small boy starting out in Dunblane, added: “He looked absolutely incredible [against Dimitrov]. He’s still performing to such a high level. Look at how he moved on the court last night, amazing.
“But there’s no doubt he will be tired. The toughest matches are ahead of him here and he has played so much over the summer. He’s going to be tired, but we’ve seen before at the Aussie tie, you saw him walk out in that doubles match, he was hurting and fatigued and he still managed to go out and give everything and I don’t think that will change.‚“”
Gaël Monfils became the first man to reach the semi-finals last night when he overcame Lucas Pouille in straight sets. The world No12 is still yet to drop a set and rarely looked troubled against his compatriot, wrapping up a 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 victory. The 30-year-old will contest only the second grand slam semi-final of his career against either Novak Djokovic or Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
