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 There’ll be better-played matches this year, but there won’t be many that are more dramatic or bizarre than the one Andy and Tommy Haas played on Friday night. The lights were on, the crowd was pumped, and whatever they might have been expecting to see - it wasn't this.
But by the time Murray had overcome foot, ankle, knee and hip problems to edge past a dazed and cramping Haas in the third-set tiebreak, no one was complaining either.
Things were looking pretty routine till the third game of the second set. Haas had played well and taken the first set. Having called an injury timeout to get treatment for a blister on his right foot, Murray was up an early break in the second.
And then it began. Lunging for a volley at game point, Murray tumbled over and came up on his back, clutching his ankle. The crowd’s appreciative ‘ooh’ turned into a concerned ‘ooh’ as Murray lay there for a few seconds, not knowing whether the snap he had heard was just his ankle brace or something more alarming. The whole spring season was in flux for a moment, because Murray is one of the players really expected to make a push during this period, and it now looked like he could be out for a while if the problem was serious.
Haas was the first to rush over, calling for ice and examining Murray’s ankle. Murray was touched, and a little apologetic. “That’s one of the things that makes tennis a special sport,” he said afterwards. “When you get matches like that and guys coming over to show concern for your health.”
Murray got up to continue playing, but was clearly in bad shape – the ankle was sore, his knee was hard to bend because it was bleeding, and his hip was starting to hurt from the fall. Don’t forget that blister from earlier, either.
It looked like a futile gesture. When Haas hit an experimental dropshot soon after play resumed, Murray didn’t even make a move towards it. Being stretched out to the corners or returning a wide serve meant having to go for all or nothing winners. He couldn’t get much jump on his serve, sending the ball down in the 70-80 mph range. Finding it difficult to move to the forehand side, he was frequently reduced to slicing off that wing.
And yet, this tiptoe approach brought down Haas’ Big Cat game faster than anything else might have. Facing the always-tricky task of playing an injured opponent, Haas was bewildered by the sheer unorthodox creativity Murray was forced to resort to. “It’s almost sometimes like a couple of rallies are – you think you’re back in the juniors,” said Haas.
During one particularly memorable point, Murray gingerly sent up a lob, hit a superb dropshot and then managed to get up to Haas’ angled reply in time to put the ball away. People looked at each other in helpless amazement: Imagine what he could to with two good legs!
By the third game of the third set, Haas knew he was becoming ensnared. When Murray’s shot dipped too quickly for Haas to volley the ball over the net, the German fell over, threw his racquet into the set and lay frustrated on the sideline. A mishit lob forehand from Murray added to his woes, and Haas double faulted on the next point, giving Murray a break point he captured with a forehand winner.
Murray was clearly starting to get back to his old self, and again felt almost apologetic about it" “Then you feel you can run around okay and you feel like a bit of a prat for taking so long to stop the match.”
Strangely enough, it was only when Murray began to play better that Haas got back into the match. But the mental strain of the contest had taken its toll, and at 6-5 it was Haas calling for the trainer to treat cramps in his leg. “I’m in great shape, so I kind of just wanted the win really bad,” said Haas. “I think all the emotions and everything kind of came into play, and sometimes when you get too overexcited or too into it, your body can sometimes act up weird.”
The cramps struck particularly badly after the fourth point of the third-set tiebreak and Haas had to walk over to the chair and take a sip of water before trying to serve. When he did serve, it was essentially from a standing position and he clocked just 79 mph.
By now, it was a contest of wills rather than tennis. The tiebreak was riddled with mistakes, and both players saved match points before Haas finally succumbed.
All in all, a match to remember. Since (as Haas observed) it involved two players who like to berate themselves – and others – when things are going badly, there was plenty of grumbling too. Murray’s yells, in particular, signalled that he was fully determined to win against his sometimes practice partner – the two were both training at the Bollettieri academy during the off-season.
Haas’ calm in the post-match interview was a striking contrast to his anger and confusion on court a little while earlier.
Murray said he couldn’t remember too many points despite usually having a photographic memory for these things, but there was plenty to tell anyway. His rundown of the match took almost two minutes, and he finished by saying, “It’s probably the longest answer I’ve ever given in a press conference.”
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