IT TAKES a lot to get Andy Murray angry. But he was red-lining just this side of apoplexy when told that Virginia Wade, whom he has known since he was young, had called him “a drama queen” during his heroic comeback against Jarkko Nieminen in the second round of the French Open.
Wade, the former Wimbledon champion, observed on Eurosport: “I have tremendous sympathy that his back is bad but I have more sympathy for the other guy as, honestly, you cannot play against someone who is being a drama queen.”
Murray woke up yesterday morning with back spasms and struggled to put weight on his left leg after pre-match practice but decided to risk it against a player he has comfortably beaten three times.
For most of the first set he clutched his back, stepped stiffly over the clay and struggled to heave his serves across the net at 60 miles an hour before recovering to beat the bewildered Finn 1-6, 6-4, 6-1, 6-2 in two hours and 27 minutes of gripping theatre on Court Philippe Chatrier.
The Scot needed three courtside visits by the ATP physio but was moving freely at the end.
However, he was still in pain an hour after the match and said he would wait until he had had further treatment before committing to playing in the third round tomorrow against Santiago Giraldo. As he saw it, he would almost certainly play.
Nieminen did not complain on court or afterwards of being affected by Murray’s actions. “I was moving bad and I made a lot of unforced errors [51],” he said. “I don’t think he was acting.”
Yet Wade commented: “I would like him to deal with it without him looking like he was quitting. It does not do him any favours to then annihilate his opponent. Nieminen got distracted.”
An hour after the match Murray gathered his thoughts before responding: “To me that’s quite disappointing, to be honest. I know how I felt on the court. I know how bad it was. And then you have people like that who always have to come out and say something controversial when, really, they should be supportive or maybe ask me a question first before commenting on it.
“I’ve known her since I was a really young kid. She used to do coaching stuff with my mum since I was a really young child. She has no idea what I was feeling on the court. She doesn’t know what was happening 20 minutes before I went out on to the court, what I was feeling, what I was doing.
“It is lonely [on court] but before the match I was there with the guys, talking about what I should do, and then, when I was out on the court, especially the first few sets, I wasn’t looking up at anyone or engaging with anything they were saying at all, because I was just so down about how I was feeling.
“And I don’t really see what the point would be in play-acting, going down 6-1, 4-2. I don’t really see what the point would be in putting yourself in a position where you’re about to lose, and stop the match, and then somehow manage to turn it around.”
Jim Courier, who has won here twice, said on ITV he thought Murray should have quit as soon as his back started seizing up and that he would be better leaving Paris to receive extended treatment before Wimbledon and the Olympics, where he had more realistic prospects of winning.
Murray admitted his coaching team advised him to quit at the end of the first set and he thought about it. “I just decided to keep going,” he said.
Meanwhile, there seems no stopping Rafael Nadal at this French Open, an event they might as well sign over to him if he wins a record seventh title. Nadal has looked increasingly confident moving through his many gears and yesterday probably hit a fresh peak. He was rarely troubled against the Uzbek Denis Istomin, ranked 43rd in the world but light years behind the Spaniard. Nadal won 6-2, 6-3, 6-1 in an hour and 51 minutes, easier even than his first-round victory over the Italian Simon Bolelli, which fell in his lap 6-2, 6-2, 6-1.
He has lost just nine games in this his eighth French Open and famously has only lost one match, to Robin Soderling when less than healthy in 2009, the year Roger Federer slipped in to lift the cup.
Nadal said: “During practice and during the tournament my attitude is slightly more positive. Last year, due to my attitude, which was less positive, it was more difficult for me. The rallies were longer, and I was not at home. I was homesick.”
A minor but touching piece of history was played out when the 34-year-old Arnaud Clement, the oldest player in the tournament, said his final goodbyes after 15 visits to his country’s championships. It took all of two minutes to conclude proceedings in Clement’s 55th and final appearance in a grand slam. The previous evening the Frenchman was in a 1-5 hole in the final set against David Goffin when rain swept through the grounds.
The reprieve was brief and there would be no fairytale. Stepping up at 0-30 on his serve, “Le Cle”, as he is affectionately known, could not add to his score and Goffin won 3-6, 7-6 (2), 0-6, 6-2, 6-1, a crazy end to a crazy match.
In the women’s singles Heather Watson’s French Open run came to an end in the second round here with a 6-3, 6-4 defeat at the hands of powerful 25th-seed Julia Goerges. Like last year, the 20-year-old Briton won three matches in qualifying and then her first-round clash as well, this time beating Russia’s Elena Vesnina in fine style at Roland Garros.
Goerges was a real step up in class, though, the 23-year-old German having climbed as high as 15th in the rankings earlier this season and reached the final at the WTA Tour event in Dubai.
Watson broke the Goerges serve in the opening game, but from there she lost three games in a row. Goerges’ game plan of going for broke whenever possible was making it hard for Watson to get any rhythm. The German continued to mix blazing winners with errors, but she was consistent enough to take the first set, and she moved 2-0 ahead in the second. But Watson levelled matters at 2-2 only to lose her serve again in the seventh game with a fifth double fault. The young Briton was trading much better with Goerges now but she came up just short, shanking her return on match point and smashing her racquet on the clay in frustration.
Guardian Service
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