The BNP Paribas Semi-finals featured two of the ‘Big Four’ going head to head for the 25th time, and the Biggest of the ‘Big Four’ facing the challenger of gatecrasher Milos Raonic. The Tennis Review reviews the Indian Wells 2015 semi-finals.
Once Djokovic and Murray matches were competitive. Between 2008 and 2013, the rivalry went back and forth, the outcome was never assured. Those were the days of the ‘Big Four’, the ATP’s marketing golden ticket, when Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray were the game’s big winners.
Today, those four are still the ATP’s top four players, but the Murray-Djokovic rivalry looks to be over. In their BNP Paribas Open semi-final Djokovic, who is world No.1 and the reigning Wimbledon and Australian Open Champion, played with the same consistent quality he has displayed since his first slam in 2008, while Murray was a shadow of the man who had beaten him in two slam finals and 3 ATP 1000 finals.
That Djokovic should win with such conviction was not really a surprise. Murray had been in poor form since his painful Australian Open defeat to Djokovic. Error-strewn losses to Coric in Dubai and Simon in Rotterdam were signs of a struggling game. And in Indian Wells, a tournament at which he has reached one final, which he lost badly to Nadal in 2009, he squeezed past Kohlschreiber, the slow courts making a weapon of his defense, and had too much consistency for Mannarino and Lopez.
Defense and consistency. Those work against the likes of those three on slow courts. But against Djokovic? The master of defense and consistency since 2011? The master of turning defense into offense and running away with a match as he did to Murray in Melbourne all those times?
You need to bring a little more to the table. Some attack, some flair, some risks. On the slower courts, putting up an inferior version of the Serbian’s game is only going to end badly.
For Murray, his match against Djokovic could not have started much worse. From the opening point of Murray’s first serve game at 0-1, the way this match would unfold was inevitable. Both men were like mirror images of one another, standing behind the baseline, sending topspin backhands and sliced backhands back and forth down the middle until someone changed the pattern or missed. It was Murray who missed first.
A few points later, Murray threw in a double fault and Djokovic had break point. Murray then did something odd. He did the right thing by getting in his first serve wide and getting a high short ball, and he did the right thing by moving forward, but then he moved back, beyond the baseline, to his comfort zone. There, he hit a forehand deep in the corner and had Djokovic on the run, and as Djokovic ran back to the middle, Murray hit another forehand back to the same spot, but was anything but comfortable on the shot, hitting the ball wide.
Once, that ball would have gone in and we would have had a match on our hands. Now, that shot was a sign of Murray’s lack of belief and was an ominous sign of things, or precisely lack of things contest-wise, to come.
Murray was 0-2 down and Djokovic had all the information he needed. Passive play, errors, double faults, retreating from mid-court. Murray would play Djokovic at his own game, was afraid of Djokovic’s game and was even more terrified of himself.
Djokovic took the match 6-2, 6-3, with matters improving marginally in the late second set for the Scot, But it was all over in the early stages of the match.
Overall, Murray hit 29 errors to 7 winners, made 47 percent of his first serves and won 50 percent of points behind that delivery. Djokovic also had a negative winner count, hitting 27 errors to 15 winners, but won 65 percent of his total serves.
Those stats are not great for Djokovic, but they did not have to be, they just had to be significantly better than Murray’s. That is how this match was played- not to win, but not to lose.
Djokovic though was fine with that. He had energy to conserve after all- he had a possible final to play with Roger Federer.
Federer stops Raonic gatecrashing again
The Swiss took on Milos Raonic who had gatecrashed what many were hoping was going to be a ‘Big Four’ reunion. The ATP’s beloved quartet has not filled up the last four of a tournament since the 2012 Australian Open when they produced two high quality encounters that for once justified the hype and hoopla.
Since then, injuries to different members, and dips in form, at different times, sometimes the same time, have prevented them from meeting up. At this year’s Indian Wells, a reunion looked like it might finally happen as Nadal, the final member to keep his part of the pact, held match points against Raonic in their quarter final. Raonic, though, overturned the match-points, and a 0-5 career head to head against the Spaniard, and spoiled the party.
Beating Federer in the semis would have been another piece of gatecrashing. Federer and Djokovic have been living up to their world no’s 1 and 2 billing now and then, and providing some great matches while they are it, Indian Wells 2014 being a good illustration of that.
The likelihood of Raonic surprising the ATP tour and fans with an appearance in the final was in doubt once Federer had broken him at 5-5 and went on to take the first set 7-5. It was almost impossible to imagine once Federer broke him early in the second.
Raonic did fight, though. The sole representative of the Nishikori-Tomic-Dimitrov generation is as eager to break through as many fans are for them to do so, and deep into the second set as the match seemed to reach its inevitable conclusion, Raonic took one last swing at bringing his generation back into contention.
With Federer serving at 5-4, Raonic won the opening point with a backhand passing shot on the run that hit Federer’s racket frame. Raonic’s back-court play is very much a work in progress, but his defense on this slow surface proved it was progressing in the right direction.
That defense seemed to worry Federer. On the next point, Federer served out wide again to the Raonic backhand, but he over-hit his forehand to the Raonic forehand side to go 0-30 down.
Federer was a little tentative on the next point, sensing Raonic’s chances to grab momentum, and stayed back, rallying with Raonic. When a Federer forehand hit the tape and sat up right in the hitting zone of the Raonic forehand, it looked like Federer would face three break points against a man who had saved match points the previous day on his way to one of his career best wins.
Luckily for Federer, Raonic’s inexperience at the very top of the game decided matters. The Canadian took the forehand on but he sent it well wide.
An over-hit return from Raonic and it was 30-30. Federer’s footwork and defensive skills then came into play- after a long rally the Swiss hit a laser-like forehand cross-court on the run that was too good for Raonic whose long arms could not reach the ball and he hit down the line too soon and into the net.
On match point, Federer took matters into his own hands, got Raonic on the run, opened up the court, and won the point with a forehand volley, a confident end to a match which he was very close to losing his grip on.
Raonic may not have spoiled the party again, but he had certainly shown his name might turn up on a few guest lists to the business end of big events soon. That though was small consolation to him as he shook hands with Federer- the disappointment on his face at his missed chances a promising sign of things to come.
Federer meanwhile had won the right to be guest of honor once again at Indian Wells- Federer has four titles and will play the final for a record fifth.
Commentary by Christian Deverille
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