Andy Murray won his 54th match of the season – still more than anyone else on the Tour, and one ahead of the world No1, Novak Djokovic – but, on a night dressed up beforehand by rain, thunder and lightning, he had to slay the crowd favourite Mardy Fish in two tight sets to do so.
Nearly everything about Fish’s presence in the Cincinnati Masters has been remarkable. In the penultimate tournament of his career at 33 and in just his fourth match of the season, he had beaten Viktor Troicki in the first round for the loss of only four games two win a shot at Murray, surprising himself as much as the Serbian, who is ranked 20 in the world.
Fish had not played a lot better against this class of opponent even before an anxiety disorder cut him down in 2014 – so viciously he was often scared to fall asleep – and wiped out his entire season, threatening to bring his career to a premature close.
However, lumbered with a ranking of 1,032 through inactivity, he decided to give it one more go and has slowly worked his way back to fitness and reasonable form – to the point where he was bidding on Wednesday night to become the first player ranked outside the top 1,000 to beat opponents from the top 10 and top 20 in the same tournament since Darren Cahill (1,013) defeated Marc Rosset (16) and Goran Ivanisevic (6) at Indian Wells 21 years ago.
Fish left it all on court – as he no doubt will in his farewell appearance, at the US Open in 10 days time – before Murray, five years his junior and in the form of his life, ground him down to win 6-4, 7-6 (7-1), with just a few lapses, in an hour and 44 minutes.
Murray plays the struggling Grigor Dimitrov in the third round in the first evening match of the Thursday programme and, coming off a fine win over Djokovic to win the Rogers Cup at the weekend, he is reaching a perfect pitch ahead of the final major of the season.
However, he could do with an early finish. This was his third post-midnight finish of the summer, and he remarked later, “It’s tough. And there’s still fatigue there from Sunday.”
There was the added complication of playing an opponent he knows well in his second-last appearance on the Tour. “It was tricky,” Murray said. “He’s a good guy and we get on well but obviously I’m desperate to try to win the match. He’s still playing well. I was lucky, because he hasn’t played many matches, and he made mistakes at the end of each set, which is normal, because he hasn’t played loads. Conditions were tough as well, very humid, so different to last week.”
After a lengthy spell waiting for the storms to rumble through and around the flat open spaces of southwestern Ohio, they finally got on to the tournament’s second court about 10.30pm, relieved not to be shuffled into an over-time queue the following day. But both players appeared apprehensive, too, about a surface so tough and sticky that, after a late-afternoon cloudburst, Benoit Paire’s shoes had turned into mangled lumps on Center Court as he twisted and turned in vain against Djokovic (who admitted later he had yet to rediscover his best tennis).
Murray and Fish were on Grandstand next door – one of the Scot’s favourite courts on Tour – but the grip was the same as the main arena, and the raucous screeching provided an irritating soundtrack to their efforts.
Murray was taking no chances. After a quarter of an hour, he asked for the baseline to be dried after feeling unsteady during his service game. To take a tumble this close to the US Open would have been the cruellest twist, in every way.
They exchanged breaks twice in the first set, neither of them completely comfortable underfoot, and thus prepared to go for early winners rather than stretch the exchanges. Murray looked mightily relieved to break for a third time and take the set after 45 minutes of quality struggle.
Murray had induced 19 unforced errors out of his opponent, but Fish was risking all, prevailing in five of seven visits to the net. It was no late-night stroll. And, when Fish produced a quite wondrous winner from a respectable Murray smash to hold in the second game of the second set, the Fish Heads, as his supporters are known, rose in their recently soaked seats as one. His grin told a tale of joy just to be still playing the game he loves.
They were doubly pleased when Murray drove a loose backhand down the tramlines to give up his serve in the seventh game, and Fish was back in the fight. Again Murray clawed it back before dumping a forehand in the 11th game to give Fish a chance to level at a set apiece, just after midnight, but he hit long and they went to the tie-break, which Murray won for the cost of a single point.
