Wimbledon 2012: Murray - Ferrer

 
 
By Simon Briggs, at Wimbledon
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
David Ferrer did all he could to block the path on Wednesday. Like a silent-movie villain, Ferrer spent the best part of four hours hauling rocks and lumber onto the tracks. But in the end the Andy Murray train burst through to set up a tantalising last-four encounter with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Friday.
 
 
 
 
 
What a contrast this is from the mood a fortnight ago, when Murray limped into Wimbledon with a dodgy back and not a single grass-court victory to his name all season. Now he is back in the semi-finals for the fourth year in a row - an extraordinary level of consistency that equals Tim Henman’s (non-consecutive) record.
 
 
 
 
 
It might be objected that Murray has lost all three of his previous semi-finals at Wimbledon - to Andy Roddick in 2009 and to Rafael Nadal in both 2010 and 2011. But this year he faces a man he has bested many times in the past. Tsonga is a worthy opponent, but hardly an unassailable one considering that their head-to-head record stands at 5-1 in Murray’s favour.
 
 
 
 
 
Since Lukas Rosol sprung the surprise of the tournament on the first Thursday, ejecting Nadal under the stately pleasure-dome of the Centre Court roof, we have all had a sneaking sense that Murray could be the man to profit. Yet Murray himself pooh-poohed the idea on Wednesday, insisting that, “Just because I lost to him a few times doesn’t mean I’d never want to play against him.
 
 
 
 
 
“I don’t mind playing against Rafa,” he added. “I’ve won against him in Slams before. It’s obviously a challenge, and he’s played some very good tennis when we have played each other here. But Jo’s a tough opponent. He has served very well so far this tournament. It’s a very different match to playing against Rafa, but he’s one of the best grass-court players in the world, that’s for sure.”
 
 
 
Murray will need his day off on Thursday after a fiendishly intense tussle with Ferrer, who fought every step of the way before finally succumbing by a
 
 
 
6-7, 7-6, 6-4, 7-6 margin. The only consistent thing in this stomach-churning match was Andre Agassi’s shaven head, sitting dead centre in the Royal Box as he drank in every one of the 315 points, many of which produced intricate and beguiling rallies.
 
 
 
You can only imagine that Agassi was thinking, “Thank goodness I don’t have to go through this any more,” because it was one of the most agonisingly tightly contested encounters of the tournament. The first two sets both went to tie-breaks, and at one point Ferrer had a point for a 7-6, 7-6 lead, which would surely have been decisive. But Murray pounded down a hefty serve and then followed up with a monster forehand to see off the danger. A few seconds later he had equalised at one set apiece - the same position that both his previous Grand Slam meetings with Ferrer had reached before setting off in opposite directions.
 
 
 
The Australian Open semi-final of 2010 tilted Murray’s way when he changed his string tension and began to throw in a raft of drop shots and lobs, knocking Ferrer out of his metronomic gameplan. But a month ago in Paris, the French Open quarter-final produced the opposite result after Ferrer started to pick Murray’s net-rushes off as accurately a marksman with a telescopic sight.
 
 
 
This time, there were two key differences. The first was the smooth service rhythm that Murray slipped into in the later stages of the match, landing no fewer than 83 per cent of his first serves in the fourth set. And his confident ability to spread the play wide on both sides of the court, which meant that Ferrer was the man doing most of the running towards the end.
 
 
 
Even for a man as well-conditioned as he is, the effort told eventually.
 
 
 
Afterwards, Murray was asked lots of questions about the pressure he is under, and whether he felt he could win the title. He gave one intriguing answer that turned to another sport. “LeBron James obviously is a great basketball player,” Murray said, “but there’s a lot of people that said he’d never win, that he never played his best in finals, and that in the fourth quarter of games he never steps up.
 
 
 
“I don’t need to go into the whole background of his whole story, but winning [the NBA finals] this year for him I’m sure was massive. I would say for me it’s a similar situation. I’ve been close a lot of times and not quite made it. I just have to keep putting myself in the position, and hopefully it will click.”