The first chill of autumn invaded Britain’s heatwave summer on Friday night. Murray lost his Wimbledon semi-final to the American Andy Roddick in four sets, and on Sunday Roddick will make his third attempt to unhorse Roger Federer in a men’s singles final here – which is not quite so historic as having the first British finalist in 71 years.
Amid all the local over-excitement about Murray, it became all too easy to forget he was up against a man who has been among the world’s best for nearly a decade. There was never more than a cigarette paper between them: the score was 6-4, 4-6, 7-6, 7-6 – with only four service breaks all match. But at the vital moments Roddick made fewer mistakes.
At the start his serve touched 143mph, a record for this year’s tournament, and he was still consistently over 130 by the end. Crucially, he kept getting his first serves in and they kept kissing the corners. “Sometimes there’s not a whole lot you can do about that,” said Murray.
The Centre Court crowd was a little slow to give Murray the extra dose of patriotic fervour that carried him through under the roof on Monday night. They had to get round the problem that the customary cry of “C’mon Andy” was ruled out for the day due to ambiguity. “C’mon Murray” didn’t work as well, somehow.
Perhaps the spectators were hypnotised. You couldn’t say it was a great tennis match like the 2008 final which Federer lost to Rafael Nadal. But it was a contest of almost frightening pace and intensity. Murray could not match Roddick for speed of service – no one can – but he actually served more aces (25-21).
His problem was that he knew he had to take the pace off the ball to draw Roddick into long rallies. He did that often enough, but then kept making unforced errors.
Yet he has nothing to be ashamed about. This was Murray’s fourth Wimbledon and every time he has got one round further. Extrapolating that, he should be in the final in 2010 (a mere 72-year wait) and champion in 2011 (75 years since Fred Perry). That is not implausible, if a little too neat. The English will wish to ensure that the Scots don’t declare independence before then and turn Murray into yet another foreign winner.
It is beyond much doubt that Murray is the best home player to emerge since Perry, the only male Briton to win Wimbledon in the past 100 years. And he has no need to reproach himself whatever. As he said himself: “I had some very good matches, and, you know, I thought I played good tennis. I’ll come back next year and try to do better.” Murray has a better chance in two months’ time on the hard courts at the US Open.
He also handled the demands of stardom and expectation shrewdly and with pretty good grace, although his farewell to the crowd seemed rather perfunctory. In terms of the drama, the fortnight has belonged to him, even though he won’t be around to take his curtain call tomorrow.
But the sight of this match was Roddick, shirt-tails flailing and his racket describing almost a circle, playing with a determination some thought he had given away for ever. He admitted last night that, after an early exit last year, he had wondered whether he could ever compete at the top.
His only grand slam title came in the 2003 US Open, and for Roddick, Federer has played Moriarty to his Holmes, Jerry to his Tom – an opponent of infinite subtlety constantly evading his clutches.
Federer had earlier won his semi-final in his usual fashion. His German opponent Tommy Haas acquitted himself well, and was competitive throughout. But there was never a serious prospect of him winning, and he went down in three sets. And so the Williams sisters will meet again today for the women’s title, and Federer and Roddick will play off on Sunday: three Americans and Federer from Switzerland.
But it may not be just British tennis followers who will feel Murray’s exit has taken a little zing out of the weekend.
