Since the start of this year’s grass-court season, the confidence with which Andy Murray has tackled his favourite surface has been striking. Even after all he has endured, Murray consistently maintained that he remains one of the better grass-court players in the world.
During a second-round contest of the highest quality against Stefanos Tsitsipas, Murray backed up his convictions in full. Still, he found no joy at the end as another year at Wimbledon ended in heartbreaking defeat.
In the most significant match of the tournament so far, Tsitsipas rose to the occasion on his Centre Court debut and produced one of his best performances of the season, recovering from a two-sets-to-one deficit overnight to win both sets on Friday and defeat Murray 7-6 (3), 6-7 (2), 4-6, 7-6 (3), 6-4.
“Never easy against Andy, I know everyone loves him here,” said Tsitsipas. “It’s a very difficult game, I’m very impressed with the way he holds up having been so many years on the tour, having had two hip surgeries. I am very impressed with his level today and I wish him the very best in the future.”
An incredible victory was made all the more impressive by the level required to pull it off. Tsitsipas may have begun the tournament in dire form with a pitiful record on grass, but he has risen to the challenges of a brutal draw. In his first two rounds, Tsitsipas has faced two former grand slam champions in two five-set battles, barely surviving against a resurgent Dominic Thiem in a two-day first-round match that ended in a fifth-set tie-break.
From the beginning on Thursday, Tsitsipas’s serve was spotless and he struck his forehand astonishingly well as he took the first set on a tie-break. Despite the immense challenge from his opponent, Murray was right there. He served brilliantly, and as he faced a barrage of nuclear forehands, Murray so often managed to find Tsitsipas’s backhand, and outmanoeuvre the Greek with his precision, consistency and guile. Murray departed on Thursday night with a two-sets-to-one lead having struck just 11 unforced errors in three sets.
But nothing is ever simple in Murray’s world. In the penultimate point of the third set, Murray slipped and appeared to hurt his groin, meaning question marks remained overnight about his physical conditioning. But Murray felt no lasting pain the next morning. They returned under completely different conditions, the roof open in the afternoon sun, their games exposed to the elements.
After a long night to sleep on their hopes and regrets from the match, both players were visibly nervous early on but their levels rose throughout the fourth set and it was Murray who first put himself in position to win.
At 4-4, Murray returned extremely well, forcing Tsitsipas to defend his backhand corner as he created a chance at 15-30 on Tsitsipas’s serve. Murray then connected with a brilliant angled cross-court backhand return, but the ball was called out. Murray did not challenge, but Hawk-Eye later revealed that the return had landed in. Instead, Tsitsipas served himself out of trouble after a tight deuce game and forced a tie-break.
But it was the Greek who held his nerve under pressure as Murray made a number of crucial errors, his backhand unusually loose. Tsitsipas took advantage, lasering forehand winners before snatching the decisive mini-break with a moment of genius; sweeping forward towards the end of a breathless 30-stroke rally and slamming down an overhead winner. With the mini-break secured, Tsitsipas powered on to a fifth set.
After four hours of great serving and discipline during his service games, Murray meekly gave away his serve early on in the fifth set, double-faulting while trailing 0-30 and then striking a bad forehand error on Tsitsipas’s third break point. Across five sets and two days, it was the only time that Murray lost his serve. Tsitsipas did not let the opportunity go to waste, marching through the fifth set to secure the win.
Despite Wimbledon being one of the tournaments where he first made his name, emerging as a wide-eyed teenager who looked to spectacularly dive into volleys at every opportunity, most of Tsitsipas’s outings on grass courts since then have been a struggle. His best result here remains a fourth-round run at 19 years old in 2018.
On grass, Tsitsipas’s backhand and return of serve can be exposed and he does not always enjoy the low bounces. But Tsitsipas showed that the force of his weapons and his smooth all-court game can outweigh those weaknesses and he may have arrived at a turning point in his grass-court career.
Murray’s last victory against a top-10 player at a grand slam was six years ago at the 2017 French Open. His achievements since his hip surgery have been supreme, from returning to the top 40 to consistently battling top players as equals. Once again, he played at an extremely high level, serving well, defending spectacularly and effectively neutralising Tsitsipas for so much of the occasion. Once again, it was not quite enough.
After the misfortune of two brutal rounds against two grand slam champions, Tsitsipas will return on Saturday for his fifth day of play in a row with a clear opportunity to finally make a deep run at Wimbledon. He will face Laslo Djere of Serbia for a place in the fourth round.
