Andy Murray came back to win the Rakuten Open title in Tokyo over Rafael Nadal 3-6, 6-2, 6-0. The victory marked the end of a five match Murray losing streak to Nadal dating back to the August 2010 Canadian Open – a stretch that included one painful semifinal loss after another in three of the past four majors (at Roland Garros, Wimbledon, and the U.S. Open).
The win brings Murray’s overall record against Nadal to 5 wins (all on hardcourts) and 13 losses, and it narrowed Nadal’s career edge on hardcourts to 6-5. It was the second time that Murray had “bageled” Nadal 6-0 in a decisive set, the first since 2009 on another fast indoor court in Rotterdam.
Murray’s 20th Career Title
The Tokyo title was Murray’s 20th in the 29 finals he has reached during the first five years of his career as a pro.
Perhaps more importantly, the win in Tokyo keeps alive what is turning out to be the second most notable winning streak of this season dominated by Novak Djokovic: it was Murray’s 21st win in his last 22. (In reaching the Tokyo final, Nadal surpassed the injured Djokovic’s 2011 match win total with 65.) If Murray can win in Shanghai for a third straight week, he will be the main story coming out of this year’s Asian swing into the final tournaments in Europe.
Seeing how well Murray competed against Nadal in Tokyo after the three big semifinal losses in the year’s majors moved me to begin wondering, again, just where Murray might be in his overall development as a player. I suddenly realized I’d seen a version of this before almost 30 years ago, when a prolific young winner on the tour couldn’t seem buy a major title.
Andy Murray has lost three major finals so far in the first five years of his career – the 2008 Australian Open to Federer, the 2010 U.S.Open to Federer and the 2011 Australian Open to Djokovic. Ivan Lendl lost four major finals between 1980 and 1984, before winning 8 of the next 15 he played.
Ivan Lendl Won 40 Titles Before Winning His First Major in Paris.
Many younger tennis fans may not remember Ivan Lendl at all. He retired over 15 years ago. Unlike many players who have stayed around the game as commentators or on the senior tour, Lendl has not, partly because of the back injury that forced his retirement.
As impressive as it is that Murray has won 20 titles (and counting) in his first five years on tour, it’s sobering to realize that Lendl had won twice as many by the same age – an age dominated in the majors and elsewhere by Bjorn Borg, Jimmy Connors, and John McEnroe.
Lendl is often credited as being one of the inventors of “the power game” in contemporary tennis, blasting away from the baseline and venturing forward only on weak replies. He also raised the level of fitness expected of top players to new heights by training intensely both off court and on.
Murray’s baseline game resembles Lendl’s in a number of ways, if you reverse the side of their dominant stroke. For Lendl it was a fearsome forehand; for Murray it’s the backhand, as he demonstrated again and again in the stunning display of winners he hit to every part of the court against Nadal in Tokyo.
Murray’s movement around the court is renowned, and while it was never Lendl’s greatest strength he moved better than all but a handful of players, as writer and commentator Bud Collins has always emphasized. Murray may have a better drop shot and more touch around the net, but he shares Lendl’s reluctance to come forward except to put away short balls.
Unfortunately, what links Murray and Lendl in tennis history so far is a tendency Lendl eventually mastered and that Murray has yet to overcome: playing best when it mattered least, in tournaments other than the four majors.
Make no mistake about it, Murray’s 3-6, 6-2, 6-0 win over Rafael Nadal in Tokyo was an important result. It was an ATP Tour final worth 500 ranking points and $295,000. And it should help restore some of the confidence that has to have been shaken by the five previous losses.
But whether the win represents a turning point in his development or just another blip in the up and down pattern that has been Murray’s career so far remains to be seen. Ivan Lendl’s eight major titles and 94 tournament wins seems like a long distance away, but stranger things have happened.
