“It’s just tennis,” Andy Murray said before disappearing into the Melbourne night after losing to a player 50 places below him in the world rankings. All the indications had previously suggested he would finally win the Australian Open he craves after losing in five finals – but it was not to be.
Four of those defeats were to Novak Djokovic, who lost in the second round to the world No117 Denis Istomin, 67 places below Mischa Zverev, the German who inflicted Murray’s pain on him over four sets in the fourth round. He had not just lost a match; he had blown a wonderful opportunity.
“I had great success for a number of months,” Murray said, reflecting on his rise to No1 at the end of last season, when he displaced Djokovic and beat him in the ATP World Tour Finals in London.
“In the biggest events you want to do your best but that’s not been the case here. It happens. I’ve had tough losses in my career. I’ve come back from them. This is a tough one. I’m sure I’ll come back OK from it but right now I’m very down because I wanted to go further in this event. It wasn’t to be.”
But it was. The world No1 was supposed to play the world No2, Djokovic, in the final, and neither was scripted to go out before the quarter-finals to a pair of seasoned hustlers. The last time that happened was at Roland Garros 13 years ago.
Like Istomin, Zverev could hardly contain his delight. He described it as: “Definitely the best match of my life, not only because it was a best-of-five sets match, it was at a slam. It was just incredible.”
It was a victory, too, for conviction over doubt. “I believed in myself,” Zverev said. “I believed in my game. I believed that playing serve and volley against him and slicing a lot, trying to destroy his rhythm, was going to work, which it did in the end.”
Murray, meanwhile, was as uncertain about his movement off the court as he was on it, when Zverev second-guessed him in many key moments.
He was considering flying home on Monday, with his wife, Kim Sears, his daughter, Sophia, and his team, but said he would decide later about playing in the Davis Cup tie against Canada in Ottawa the weekend after the final here. “Davis Cup would be next on the schedule but whether I stay here or go home in the meantime, I’m not sure,” Murray said.
Tiredness may be an issue, although it would not be the best look if a player just knighted in part for his services to the British game chose not to lead the national team, having been unexpectedly left with an extra week to recover and prepare.
He added: “The off-season for me was fairly short just because I had to take a decent break after the Tour Finals but it was a great way to finish last year. I was full of confidence coming into the beginning of this year. I prepared as best as I could.”
As did all the players, from the elite to the lucky losers and qualifiers, most of whom went home early.
Where Murray descended into mutter mode in his match, Zverev, with nothing to lose, played with a smile on his face to win 7-5, 5-7, 6-2, 6-4. “You try to distract yourself by doing the right thing on the court,” Zverev said. “I kept looking at my box. My mom [who also works as his coach] was always smiling. That helps. My dad’s focused. Everybody else was just chilling [including his 19-year-old brother, Alex, who almost beat Rafael Nadal the night before].”
While Murray has borne his suffering in public and in exalted company at the summit of the game, Zverev has endured disappointment in anonymity.
“When I came back from wrist surgery two years ago, it was my brother who said: ‘You can make it back, you can be top 100 again, be a great player.’ I have to say thank you to him quite a lot. It wasn’t easy. I had a cast on my left arm. I couldn’t hold a racket. I dropped to, like, 1,100 at the beginning of 2015.”
Now he is in a quarter-final of a slam and will play Roger Federer, who thrilled the arena later when he beat Kei Nishikori 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 6-1, 4-6, 6-3.
“It was tough for Andy,” Federer said courtside, “but he’ll be back. I’m sure he’ll win this title one day.”
