Britain's Andy Murray rests during a training session at the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne January 30, 2010. Murray will face Roger Federer of Switzerland in the men's singles final on January 31st. REUTERS/David GrayDAVID GRAY/Reuters
About six days after Roger Federer defeated Andy Murray 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (11) to win the Australian Open, here are a few thoughts on the final.
If you looked at the match in terms of the forehand axis - forehand to forehand, and the backhand axis - backhand to backhand, the match was dramatically in Federer's favour. He dominated the forehand axis in an obvious way. Especially on the run, his forehand was an absolute rocket, every time he ran to his right and hit the ball to Murray's forehand, the Scot's weaker side, he was in control. The best Murray could hope for was to just get the ball back, he had hardly any chance at all to think about being offensive on that side. Federer was so on with his forehand - hitting it hard, deep, well-angled and consistently - that it seemed like he had about a 75-25 advantage whenever the players were on that axis.
As for the backhand to backhand axis on Murray's superior side, here again Federer was slightly better - let's say 52-48 - as he played remarkably well on his weaker side. Especially notable were backhands hit down the line for outright winners on some key points.
So the aggregate of the basic match-ups in tennis - forehand to forehand and backhand to backhand - decidedly favoured Federer.
The rest of the stats - Federer 46 winners, Murray 29 winners; Federer 42 unforced errors, Murray 36 unforced errors; Federer 4/12 in break-point chances, Murray 2/8 in break-point chances - were not that much in Federer's favour. It was mostly his cannon forehand that completely de-stabilized Murray throughout the match.
Murray can take some comfort that Federer's forehand cannot be much better than it was that night in Rod Laver Arena. On the other hand, players such as Juan Martin del Potro and Marin Cilic probably hit as big or bigger on that side and can be expected to give Murray problems in the future by also exploiting the forehand-to-forehand axis.
NOTES: Four columnists flew in from London, from The Times (the estimable Simon Barnes), The Daily Telegraph, the Daily Mail and The Evening Standard, for the Murray-Federer final. There was Barnes making some arrangements at the reception desk in the media work room at the Australian Open at about 5:30 p.m. - just two hours before the final began. What a long flight and rush to get there, especially when in most peoples' minds Federer was the clear favourite to win the match. But the possibility of the first British champion at a Grand Slam event in 74 years was not something that newspaper supremos back home were willing to take a chance of missing.
Best comical anecdote of the 2010 Australian Open fortnight: Apparently many years ago, Ian Botham, the famous English cricket player and later coach of the national side, arrived at customs in Sydney. Botham was asked by officials if he had a criminal record. He paused for a moment and then replied, "Do you still need one of those to get in here?"
The remark was taken in good humour by customs personnel and Botham was quickly waved through.