So victory for Andy Murray over Nikolay Davydenko 7-6 6-4 but in truth this was a match lost rather than won. The contest was packed full of errors, some forced by a change of pace, a high bouncing ball, or a shot landing deep to the baseline. But far too many were unforced, simply dumped in the net, pushed wide, or yards long under little or no pressure. Both players were guilty though Davydenko contributed far more than his fair share.

Murray chose to position himself deep behind the baseline, hoping to lure his opponent into the net. Davydenko pressed from just inside the court, venturing forward only when Murray was out of position. Despite an unorthodox volleying technique Nikolay won the vast majority of these points at the net. Yet winning the tactical battle was not enough to secure victory in a tightly fought contest desperately short of quality.

The early games hinted at what was to come. Murray produced an ace to go 30-0 then needless errors took the score to 30-40 at which point he double faulted to concede the first break. Davydenko found himself break point down in his first service game but continued to attack and was rewarded. His second was less impressive; a double fault and two horrible groundstrokes gifting Murray the break back.

Serving at 4-5 Davydenko started with a couple of ugly forehands then lost an incredible point as he first attacked the net only for Murray to lob, Davydenko came up with a high backhand smash, Murray another lob, Davydenko another smash, Murray a third lob that Nikolay proceeded to smash into the net. At 0-40 the set should have been Andy's but he chose to wait for the error rather than making anything happen himself; it never came.

By now the russian was in complete control of the points. A couple of blistering forehand winners took him to 30-40 on Murray's serve and Andy handed him the break with a forehand into the net. Attempting to serve out the set Davydenko's game collapsed; a double fault and two unforced errors taking it into a tiebreak.

Murray's first serve which had been patchy up to this point, came good in the tiebreak. An ace and two unreturned serves making the difference amongst yet more unforced errors from both players.

The second set began with another break of serve. A couple of impressive groundstrokes from Murray got him to 30-30 and errors from his opponent did the rest. The pattern of play was unchanged from the first set. Davydenko pressing, Murray looping high balls that Nikolay struggled to deal with, bouncing up above his shoulder.

An extraordinary spell in which Andy missed 14 first serves in a row yet somehow managed to hold serve. At 4-3 he faced break point but came up with a rare piece of aggression, firing a double-handed backhand crosscourt that Davydenko couldn't deal with. Serving for the match a series of challenges confused all. Davydenko won a challenge, Murray then won an ace on the replay again with a challenge, lost the next point despite a challenge, and would have won another ace had he had any challenges left to contest the call. Completely out of character with the rest of the match, Andy finished with an ace for a 7-6 6-4 victory.

So how did Murray win the match? Neither player played anywhere near their usual standard. Murray's first serve percentage was a shocking 42% while Davydenko's was low by his standard at 59%. The main difference was points won on 2nd serve: Andy 59%, Nikolay 43%. It was noticeable that Davydenko struggled trying to return Murray's kicked second serve and was unable to attack what is often a vulnerable aspect of Andy's game.

For all his talents, this was a match to forget for Andy. A handful of big first serves and a couple of heavy double-handed backhands and that was it. The rest was clever variations of pace and spin that a desperately poor Davydenko could not deal with. Andy got lucky, very lucky.


-- Edited by kundalini at 00:13, 2007-03-15