Lukas Rosol, as Andy Murray learned one mad afternoon in Munich, has enough attitude for an entire locker room of Tour-hardened veterans. It is instructive that, when asked about his most recent match against the world No2, Rosol chose not to refer to their infamous bust-up last year but to a nondescript match in Indian Wells nearly two and a half years ago.
“It was three sets in the first round,” he said. “Then we play on clay court [in Munich], which is a little bit different … but from the hard court I have good memories against him.”
Did Rosol have anything else to recall from Munich before his return engagement against Murray in the first round of the US Open on Tuesday, he was asked. Like shoulder-bumping Murray on a changeover and hearing the Scot say: “No one likes you on the tour. Everyone hates you”? The Czech’s response was: “You have some other question? I don’t want to answer this.”
Despite this there is much to admire about Rosol’s rough edges. He is the perennial outsider, the lightly regarded obstacle. In 2012, in his third match on grass, the then world No100 played the set of his life – one of the finest sustained bursts of power tennis anyone present could remember – to blow Rafael Nadal off the court and out of Wimbledon. But Rosol did not want to dwell on his Nadal triumph, either.
“That is history already,” said the 31-year-old No82. “I remember the match, yes, but I cannot take something from the match for Tuesday. He was a leftie and [there were] too many different things. I was also four years younger and I was different. Now I am more experienced and Andy is playing a different game.”
As is the way in big-time sport, nosy inquisitors are urged to “move on”, to forget past embarrassments. But Murray and Rosol will always have Munich – just as Murray and Juan Martín del Potro will always have Rome, where an outrageous wind-up by the Argentinian about his opponent’s mother, Judy, inspired the angry Scot to go on to win the match. They, too, patched it up and wrapped each other in a heartfelt embrace at the end of their draining Olympic final in Rio two weeks ago.
“We are good friends, it was something about nothing,” Rosol says about Munich. Murray confirms they spoke about the incident afterwards but he might not be taking tea with the combustible Czech. If Murray gets the job done in three quick rounds, memories of Munich will fade even further into the distance.
