There is the merest hint of mischief in John McEnroe’s voice, as he contemplates where Andy Murray’s career is heading and says: “If I were his coach … ”
If McEnroe was guiding Murray’s career – not an altogether fanciful notion – he would tell him to take a long rest because he believes he is “on the verge of burnout”. That’s a serious prognosis and only the player will know how accurate it is, although he is not inclined to heed that advice, even after Roger Federer inflicted his heaviest Tour defeat on him here on Thursday night, sending him out of the ATP World Tour Finals and into a yawning void of uncertainty.
Had Murray called McEnroe after Ivan Lendl left him in March to spend more time with his golf clubs – instead of choosing Amélie Mauresmo just before Queen’s,– an arrangement that has produced only flickering success – – there is a slim chance the American would have sacrificed at least some of his TV commentary schedulework to accommodate him.
As it is, he comes to the narrative as the grey-haired sage, eager to share his thoughts on a player not dissimilar to himself in the bird-like manner of his anxieties. And he is concerned for him.
“I don’t know where to start,” he said on Friday. “If he learns anything from Roger, it would be to forget that sort of [performance]. Roger is magnificent at forgetting devastating losses. He shrugs it off and moves on. That is not a tape you want to look at.”
Federer wiped the court with Murray in front of a stunned O2 Arena audience, sending the Scot dazed into the night a 6-0, 6-1 loser in just 56 minutes. Federer’s apparent granting of a game to save Murray the embarrassment of a double bagel did not help his mood one bit.
Murray, who slipped to 11-12 against Federer overall, finished 2014 with a 0-9 log against Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, and the ravenous pack at his heels look increasingly lean and hungry, although none of the new dogs could crack the Federer-Djokovic duopoly at this tournament.
“There is clearly a gap there,” McEnroe said. “Part of it is what has happened leading up to it. He has played too much. He is on the verge of burnout, I am assuming, without having spoken to him. You are talking about a guy who had to play a lot to get here.”
Murray played six weeks back-to-back for the first time since he was 18, winning three tournaments while saving 10 match points, and fighting his way back into the top eight to qualify for these finals for the seventh year in a row, having slipped outside the top 10 for the first time in six years.
“He seems to have not much left in the tank,” McEnroe said. “I haven’t seen him close up but his legs looked heavier. It was clear to me that Roger was moving significantly better, absolutely beautiful – but then he always does. But Andy at his best would seem to cover the court, speed-wise, the best. Roger doesn’t waste a step, or any energy. He’s the Baryshnikov of our time.”
Murray looked and sounded shattered in defeat. He was more than a little miffed, too, that Greg Rusedski, with whom he has hit occasionally, declared him “passive” during his TV commentary. “Greg obviously has his opinions and his job is to express those opinions on TV,” Murray said. “That doesn’t mean I have to agree with him, though. Wow, what do you want me to do? The guy was half-volleying the ball inside the baseline, so you had no time to react. The ball was coming off the middle of his racket on every single shot, so I’d have been interested to see how Greg would have approached it.
“To be honest I don’t care what anyone else says about it. It’s about how I deal with it. All of the players are happy to get here, because tennis is a very competitive sport and to get into the top eight in the world isn’t easy. I like to compete, I’m a competitor, so to lose a match like that is always going to be hard to take no matter how tough a road it was to make it here.
“I won’t take any positives from the match. By looking at it and using the disappointment I can use it as motivation for next year. I’ll try to move on from it in the next couple of days. Any time I’ve had tough losses in the past I’ve had maybe three or four days and then I’ve been fine and I’ve been able to deal with it from there.”
Murray said the death in May through cancer of Elena Baltacha, as well as Ross Hutchins’s winning fight against it, helped him keep life in perspective. “This is tennis, this is my job and I put a lot of work and effort into it, so when you have a day like today it hurts, because I care deeply about what I do. But at the end of the day, it’s just sport. Life goes on, I still have the same family, the same friends and that’s not going to change. Over the next few days when I talk about tennis, this match will still hurt a little bit.”
Rusedski waded back into the debate on Friday . “Yes it is fantastic that he has come back from back surgery and got back into the top 10 in the world. But the way he is playing is not the way he is going to win majors again,” he said. “He has got to get back to being dominant in matches like he was with Lendl. You have to do it in the earlier rounds the way you are going to play against the likes of Federer and Djokovic and Nadal. You have to play the lesser opponents in the same pattern. You can’t just produce it on the day.”
Perhaps McEnroe could still help, in partnership with Mauresmo. Murray had a similar arrangement, after all, with Miles Maclagan and Alex Corretja before hiring Lendl in December 2011. Stranger things have happened.
