The Australian Open men’s semi-finals for 2015 will be more remembered for their drama rather than their quality of play as things got ugly down under.
Andy Murray’s four set win over Tomas Berdych was more noteworthy for what was said on and off the court than the play that happened on it. Murray’s former assistant coach Danny Vallverdu’s sitting in Berdych’s box as his head coach, Berdych’s words at the first set changeover, Murray’s subsequent words to the umpire (‘he said something to me’) and Kim Sear’s words in the player’s box were reported more enthiusiastically than the match’s events.
None of the words meant anything either when it came down to it. Murray said the press were making a big deal out of Vallervudu’s coaching of Berdych, Berdych did not say anything to Murray but congratulated himself on his tough first set win, and no one quite knows what Sears said.
But all those ‘events’ trumped what really mattered in the semi-final- the progress of one player to the Australian Open 2015 final.
Perhaps those headlines dominated the media because the match itself was so far from the best seen in a slam semi-final.
After a tight first set, won 7-6 by Berdych, the Czech’s play dropped to such a level he lost the second set 0-6. Though he did try to make a match of it in the third and fourth, the Czech was not allowed by Murray to impose his clean hitting big game, and to some respects, he did not let himself either, so tight was he at the prospect of making his first slam final since Wimbledon 2010.
It was a shame for the Czech that he was not able to build on the momentum he was bringing into the match. His defeat over Nadal in the quarters was impressive, but he could not reproduce that same level of clean hitting against an in form Murray. The |Scot robbed him off his rhythm and forced him to go for too much. Murray also served well, returned well and believed in himself as he won 6-7, 6-0, 6-3, 7-5.
In the second semi-final, played between top seed Novak Djokovic and defending champion Stan Wawrinka, the combined 118 errors to 69 winners ratio speaks volumes for the quality of play.
Both men played their worst match of the tournament in the third part of a trilogy which had provided the event with its two most recent best matches in 2013 and 2014.
Djokovic could have won it in four, breaking as he did at the start of the fourth leading two sets to one. Unable to find his game, he hit 0 winners and 14 errors, Djokovic lost the set as Wawrinka played less badly, hitting 11 winners to 11 errors.
The fifth set looked promising as Wawrinka fought for his service game, but Djokovic broke and then ran away with the final set 6-0. Wawrinka admitted he was mentally spent in the fifth, and Djokovic’s greater ability to win ugly proved to be the deciding factor.
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