Andy Murray: the hunger is there to beat Rafael Nadal

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/jun/05/andy-murray-rafael-nadal-french-open

Version 0 of 1.

At the start of this French Open, one name was consistently ignored in discussions about who might emerge as champion: Andy Murray.

The Scot, supposedly still reeling from his recent split with Ivan Lendl and working his way back to full health after a back operation eight months ago, had not rediscovered the form that won him Wimbledon in 2013, it was agreed, and, anyway, clay was not his preferred metier – especially with Rafael Nadal halting a worrying slump and Novak Djokovic hitting a pleasing rhythm.

All of this sounded reasonable to everyone but Murray. And there was no more perfect example of his single-minded cussedness than the final 24 minutes of his quarter-final against Gaël Monfils in the gathering gloom of Court Philippe Chatrier on Wednesday night. Having blown a two-set lead, with his body crying for relief and his mind all over the place, he steeled himself for a quite astonishing statement of intent, blasting the Frenchman off the court almost without reply in front of his stunned home fans and booking a semi-final meeting with Nadal on Friday. Never tell Murray he is beaten – unless you want to see a counter-punch like that.

He was mildly affronted when it was suggested in the post-match press conference that he might have been well pleased to get this far in the tournament, given the odds against him. Later, as the Roland Garros staff went about their business of closing down the facility not far short of midnight, Murray expanded on the theme. “I don’t want to go into loads of detail,” he said, “but I have very high expectations of myself. I put a lot of pressure on myself to play well at these events. These are the tournaments that drive me to train.

“I put in a lot of time and effort thinking about them and getting ready for them and my goal is to try to win these events every time I come to them. I’m in a good position right now. I would have signed up for this position at the start of the tournament. I’d rather [be playing] someone else than Rafa, but it’s a great opportunity for me to go out there and play a great match and see if I can beat him.”

And he can. For all that Nadal remains the pre-eminent clay-courter of this or any other era, and eight-times conqueror of Paris, he has been vulnerable several times this season. This was most recently and spectacularly demonstrated in Rome against Murray, who bewildered him in the quarter-finals, taking the first set 6-1 before giving up a 4-2 lead in the third.

That start was the highest quality tennis Murray has played all year, matched only for intensity by his crushing of Monfils. If he can reproduce a combination of both of those performances on Friday, he will reach the final – and there a dream scenario would have him facing Ernests Gulbis for the title in a battle of appalling haircuts and the most entertaining tennis on the circuit.

Gulbis has been a revelation over the first 11 days here, building to an irresistible pitch to dump the sixth seed Tomas Berdych out in straight sets in the quarter-finals. He will give Djokovic nightmares in the first semi-final, also on Friday.

As for Murray’s chances, John McEnroe (whose candidacy to replace Lendl was mischievous wishful thinking at best) is waiting to see a return of the championship hunger that lifted him to his slam triumphs. He sees Nadal as the ultimate test of that. Speaking just before the Monfils match, McEnroe said: “I’m assuming he does still have the hunger. I didn’t see a lot of evidence so far in matches.

“The [Roger] Federer match in Australia [where Murray lost in the quarter-finals], I don’t think he was ready mentally, and I’m not sure physically, to do what it took there. I think he thought Federer was going to go away after he lost the third set. He wasn’t ready for him not to do that.

“He showed it against Philipp Kohlschreiber towards the end [when he won here in the fifth set], but that’s Philipp Kohlschreiber. That’s not Rafael Nadal or Novak Djokovic. Let’s see what happens if it gets to 5-5 in the fifth set against Monfils. What happens then? Mentally he has shown over the course of his career that he’s more disciplined and tougher than Monfils. If he played Nadal in the semis, it would be … let’s see how far he’s going to go here.” So, McEnroe foretold a winning struggle against Monfils, but wondered still about Murray finding that resolve at a higher level.

Murray again objects. “The hunger is there,” he insisted. “It’s there. That’s not something I have to worry about it. I believe 100% I can beat Rafa and Novak, but on this surface it’s harder for me than other courts because it’s not my best surface and they are two of the greatest clay-court players in my opinion.

“Rafa is definitely the best. You can’t compare anyone with him, with what he has achieved. But the hunger is there, the desire. I’ll give it everything I’ve got.”

There was as much repressed anger in his words as determination. Having proved himself already, he regards it as a slight that there would be doubt about his commitment – and something he said after winning his first slam in New York in 2012 came to mind.

“This has just made me hungry for more,” he said the following day. “I want to win more grand slams now. Before, I might have been satisfied with winning one. I could have retired without winning one if I was satisfied with what I had achieved. But not now. I want more.”

That was then. This is now, and an altogether different situation for him to handle: returning from an injury that could have ended his career and proving he can find the game to beat Nadal and possibly Djokovic in successive matches to lift the French Open title. It is another Fred Perry record to topple. But Murray has put those burdens behind him. He is living very much in the present, not even the recent past. He has had to reinvent himself because of the strain he put on his body in his quest to break through in the first place, and now he must again silence the doubters.

As daunting a challenge as it is, it might be a good time to catch Nadal on his home patch. It is the first time the Spaniard has arrived at these championships with three clay defeats on his record, and just the one title. Before he crushed an unusually passive David Ferrer on Wednesday, he struggled – as he did losing to Nicolás Almagro on clay in Barcelona, beating the injured Kei Nishikori in Madrid, where he won a title the Japanese almost had in his pocket, and losing to Djokovic in the Rome final.

It will be the toughest match of Murray’s season, but, having missed this tournament last year through injury, he will not lack for reasons to give his all.

There is another unspoken incentive that might be driving Murray: the desire to prove to Lendl he can win a slam without him. And how that would make him smile.