History won't weigh challenger down

TENNIS AUSTRALIAN OPEN MEN'S SINGLES FINAL: IF ANDY Murray has a secret weapon, it might be serenity. Against Roger Federer in the Rod Laver Arena here tomorrow night, he will need every scrap of calm he can muster if he is not to fall to him for a second time when in sight of the prize.

Murray sees tomorrow’s final of the Australian Open not only as an examination of his character and tennis skill against the finest player the game has produced – the man who blitzed him at his first attempt, at the US Open two years ago – but as another step on a journey he started a long time ago.

While others – including Federer – would like him to believe this is a match of compelling historic significance, for Murray the expectations of others will not add an ounce to his baggage. The only pressure on him will be that he puts on himself.

When Federer came off court after blowing away an unusually meek Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in three sets in the second semi-final yesterday, he snapped the gathering to attention when he said of Murray: “I know that he would like to win the first (grand slam) for Britain in, what is it, 150,000 years?”

He was doing more than playing to an easily pleased audience with a limp joke. He was sending a mildly intimidating message to Murray, as a revered champion of the ring would to a contender. It is a metaphor that boxing fan Murray would understand better than most.

He desperately wants to beat Federer in a major soon, much as Lennox Lewis was keen to get Evander Holyfield in the ring before he had moved on. Victory over Federer (who is not going away just yet) would validate Murray’s young career.

He could say to the next generation that he had beaten the best of this era and, as such, deserved to be considered his rightful successor in the next, the lineal champion of tennis.

When titles and ATP rankings accumulate, when one plane journey blurs into another, what matters most to the elite players is the respect of their peers. Murray wants that from Federer – and it has not been given unreservedly just yet.

So he turned his guns on him yesterday.

What Federer surely knows, though, is that Murray feels no need to unburden the nation. The Scot (and his Caledonian heritage is a factor in this) said it during the week and, if he fulfils that dream and gives Fred Perry’s ghost a rest 74 years after the third and last of his or any other Briton’s major wins, he will probably say it again: he is doing this for himself and his family.

Moments after Murray had secured his place in the final, by beating the difficult and elegant Croat Marin Cilic in four sets on Thursday, he did not sound like someone weighed down by history.

He talked, instead, like the boxer he probably would like to be, how each opponent was different, how each contest is independent of the ones that have gone before as much as the ones to come.

“It depends on the situation. Who I am playing against,” he said. “So long as you’re calm in the head, whatever your tactics are for the match, if you know what you’re trying to do out there, you will be fine. Against Rafa, I knew I had to go for my shots and play really aggressive.

“So long as you stay calm and remember to do that, it’s okay. Sometimes, if you’re thinking about other things, you can take your eye off the ball a little bit.”

Federer drove the stiletto of history in again when he reminded everyone that, in the US Open two years ago, the vulnerable Scot folded against him.

“Maybe in the US Open,” he said, “you could think he crumbled there under pressure, being in the finals the year before. Once your game is good enough, even on your off days, you come through. That’s what he’s proving here. He’s one match away. I’ll make sure it won’t happen.”

Guardian Service