When Andy Murray beat Tomas Berdych in a minor gale here three years ago to reach and win the final for his breakthrough major title, Sir Alex Ferguson famously invaded his compatriot’s press conference after the semi-final, with Sir Sean Connery and Murray’s mother Judy in tow, to declare proudly, “Scotland invented wind!”
He had half a point. Alongside radio, the telephone, television, the steam engine, radar and Frankie Boyle, the uncontrollable gusts so familiar to Scotland have occasionally had an impact beyond Cromarty, Forth and Stornaway.
On that day in the wide open Arthur Ashe stadium it was ridiculous. A storm-built wind blasted Berdych’s high ball-toss to smithereens while Dunblane’s favourite son, who grew up taming such pests, moved balletically through and with the elements. He did the same to Novak Djokovic in a lesser breeze one match later. Ferguson, not for the first time, nailed it.
Three years on the construction of a roof over the game’s most atmospheric bearpit has captured and regurgitated the New Yorkers’ traditional raucousness, but killed the wind, as Murray noted after beating Nick Kyrgios in four sets on Tuesday night. He more than likely will be back there this week, perhaps even against the Frenchman Adrian Mannarino in the second round on Thursday.
“I quite like windy conditions,” Murray said. “I think they unsettle everybody. It’s not comfortable to play in, so the level of tennis played there this year will probably be better than usual. It’s a challenge. It’s a skill to be able to use it in your favour. It can also be a challenge to not get too frustrated. Sometimes you mishit a couple and guys think: ‘Oh my God, my timing’s off.’ It can be mentally pretty challenging.”
The mental challenge for Kyrgios was carrying the baggage of daily heat for his on-court indiscretions. He has done it, taken a hit and should now be allowed to move on. Repeated questions about his contrition, as flowed again later, mainly from the Australian media, don’t take the story anywhere. The next chapter for him should be written with his racket, not his mouth, which occasionally still seems to have an idiot running it.
What the Australian had to say later about Murray was more relevant to the tournament: “He’s probably in the best form of his life. He can go really well, potentially win it. He served pretty clutch in certain situations. His defence was unbelievable again.”
And it was. Some of the returns Murray pulled off were breathtaking. In hunting down chip shots, soft-blocking some seriously heavy serves and putting in his trademark defensive lobs, he kept in points that lesser players would have abandoned. It is still the core of his game.
Against Mannarino, he will have more freedom to attack, and that should help develop his repertoire as he edges deeper into the draw. Mannarino, who has rebuilt his game to accommodate injuries, presents an entirely different challenge from Kyrgios.
“When I hurt my wrist it took a long time for me to hit my forehand the same way again,” Murray said. “I made some changes to it because of that.
“Mannarino has very little racket-head speed on either of his shots but he has phenomenal timing and that’s where he generates his power from. But it’s very difficult when you get into your Twenties to make big technical changes. Novak tried to do that and messed up his serve for a little bit.”
Tennis players, like all athletes, are prisoners of their environment, sometimes using uncontrollable outside forces as excuses, and this tournament has been marked by an unusually high number of withdrawals, notably Kyrgios’s compatriot, Thanasi Kokkinakis, during his match against Richard Gasquet.
Also going home are the Kazakh Aleksandr Nedovyesov, who withdrew at the start of the fourth set to hand Australia’s farewelling hero, Lleyton Hewitt passage to the second round; the veteran Marcos Baghdatis, who pulled out after starting against Steve Darcis; Ernests Gulbis, who quit against Britain’s Aljaz Bedene, and the New Zealander Marina Erakovic, who retired in the second set against No 2 women’s seed Simona Halep.
Murray has some sympathy with the victims but thinks tournaments should give ailing players their first-round money and let them leave, then allow a fit lucky loser to step in.
“As to the reasons, I know Kokkinakis withdrew with cramp; the conditions have been extremely tough and very humid. I’m sure some of the players have struggled with that, that would explain a couple of them.
“But I do also think that with the prizemoney now so high, – and players have fought very hard at times to get this money so high – if a player is injured and they show up here and they’re directly into the main draw by right and they’ve worked the whole year to get themselves into that position, just give them the first-round prizemoney. Then allow the lucky loser to step in and have the opportunity to play again. The lucky losers would be delighted and the players don’t have to go on the court and embarrass themselves.
“With the match last night [the Russian Vitalia Diatchenko pulling out 0-6, 0-2 down against Serena Williams, after coming in with a chronic ankle problem], I was like ’What’s going on?’ If I had paid money to watch that I would be pissed off. I wouldn’t be happy to have watched that.
“But I also understand that from the woman’s point of view that it’s a lot of money and she’s earned the right to go on the court. But she’s clearly injured – she lost love and love in Stanford the other week as well. It’s such an easy thing to fix. I just don’t know why they don’t do that.”
He is right. They have fixed the wind, so why not?
