The first thing you see when you walk out of North Greenwich tube station is a larger-than-life poster of Andy Murray, wearing his snarliest expression as he unleashes that signature double-fisted backhand.
It is a smart move by the promoters of
the Barclays ATP World Tour finals to flag up their biggest asset: the Scot who
has the whole of Great Britain cheering for him at last.
The poster stands just 300 yards from
the O2 Arena, venue for this £5.5 million tournament, and it reflects how far Andy Murray
has come over the past 12 months.
A year ago, Murray played just one
match here – against David Ferrer, the winner of Sunday’s Paris
Masters title
in Bercy – and his presence on court on the first Monday afternoon could not
prevent a good smattering of empty seats across the 17,000-capacity stadium.
On Monday, though, Murray returns to
Greenwich as the Olympic gold medallist, the US Open
champion, and a leading candidate for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year
title.
He has been involved in a high
proportion of 2012’s most compelling matches, and if he is to capture this
title for the first time he will need to come through several more.
Murray will open the singles
tournament on Monday afternoon against Tomas Berdych, the world No 6, who he
faced in the semi-final in New York two months ago.
Not that Monday’s encounter, played in
the still air of this 10-acre barn, will have a great deal in common with that
scrambling, improvisational match.
Berdych came out that day looking to
pulverise Murray with his sledgehammer of a forehand, but instead it was the
wind that did the battering.
Thankfully, the storm circling
Flushing Meadows was not quite on the same level as Superstorm Sandy, but it
still managed to lift Murray’s seat off the ground and dump it on a good length
inside his baseline.
“It was one of the strangest matches I
have played,” Murray recalled on Sunday. “You do not often play in winds like
that so it was a test of patience – I do not want to say skill – and variety.
"I used a lot of slice, drop
shots, and higher balls. It was incredibly tough conditions.”
The gales were certainly unsettling,
particularly for Murray’s unruly hair, yet the conditions were also playing to
his strengths — the huge tennis IQ, the precise feel of the ball on the racket,
the expertise in both topspin and slice.
Berdych, meanwhile, kept throwing up
his steepling, six-foot ball toss without feeling confident about where it
would come down.
On an indoor court, life will be very
different. There are far fewer variables: no sun in the eyes while serving, no
bugs on the playing surface, not even the regular howl of the planes passing
through on their way to La Guardia Airport.
Which means Murray can expect to feel
the full force of Berdych’s own jet engines.
Murray has been called the best shock
absorber in the game, because of his ability to block back attacking shots like
a batsman using the pace of a fast bowler against him.
And he will need to be at his sharpest
to level his head-to-head tally against Berdych, which stands at 4-3 in favour
of the Czech.
The presence of Ivan Lendl, making his
first appearance in Murray’s player’s box since the US Open, should help.
Monday’s other match in Group A, to be
played at 7.45pm, pits Novak Djokovic, the world No 1 elect, against
unpredictable Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
Djokovic has been showing signs of
weariness over the past week, pretty much for the first time all year.
But when he was asked what it would
mean to win in London, he replied: “It would be an ideal end to the season. I’m
sure I’ll find the strength to perform my best”.
The most appealing contest in the
group stages of this round-robin event will clearly be the latest
Murray-Djokovic showdown.
But we cannot yet say when it will be
staged. On Wednesday, if they turn in the same results on Monday (either win or
lose). Otherwise they will meet on Friday, in what could be a straight
shoot-out for a place in the semi-finals.
“Most of the matches I have played
with Novak this year have been incredibly close,” Murray said.
“I would not say either one of us has
had the upper hand. They have been incredibly physical matches, very, very
tough. I hope it is the same again this week.”
Is there a masochistic edge to
Murray’s thinking here? Lendl warned him, before their five-hour semi-final in
Australia, that “you’ll have to go through a lot of pain” to get a win against
this almost unbreakable opponent.
But the challenge has brought out the
best in both men all season. For those fans who get to watch them this week, it
will feel like finding one of Willy Wonka’s golden tickets.
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