By Bud Collins
Bud Collins, the world’s most famous tennis journalist and author of the definitive tennis history book THE BUD COLLINS HISTORY OF TENNIS, profiles matches Sunday featuring giants Ivo Karlovic and John Isner against Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray respectively at the Australian Open. The following story – and other musings from Down Under – can be found at Bud’s official website www.BudCollinsTennis.com.
Long John Isner has bashed a deep forehand along the sideline which ought to save a critical break point. It’s way out of Andy Murray’s reach.
Or is it?
Murray takes off from his right sideline and sprints frantically along the baseline, stretching in the direction of the ball, elongates his arm like Plastic Man, swings – bang! – drives a backhand past Isner.
“It was tough,” Andy says. “You just kind of react. It’s just instinct. You just chase the ball down. Good contact on it. Obviously went for the winner.”
“You were a Whirling Dervish after you hit that shot,” I say to him later.
“A what?” he replies.
I was amused by his joyful twirling himself in place for a few seconds. “You hit that magnificent backhand, then you were spinning like a Whirling Dervish,”
“Was I?” he smiled.
“Yes.”
“I didn’t realize. I was just excited,” Andy smiled again. “It was obviously to get the [decisive] break in the third set.” The break to 3-2 that solidified Murray’s 7-6 (7-4), 6-3, 6-2, victory that elevated him to an Aussie Open quarter-final against the champ, Rafa Nadal.
We didn’t continue the discussion of Whirling Dervishes, as you know a Middle Eastern religious sect. Another time, perhaps. But Murray is making a lot of converts to himself these days, and the way he puts a spin on his ever-improving shotmaking.
Isner said Murray “can do a lot. He can play offense, he can play defense. That’s what he does well — he mixes it up. He did that today. He wasn’t hitting a big ball out there. Kind of just dinking and dunking around the court. And I felt like I wasn’t able to get a good rip at the ball a lot of the time because of what he was doing with it.”
Murray seems very relaxed, good natured, playing well within himself. I can see him beating Nadal, even winning the title.
“But I’m just a boring Scot,” he chuckled self-deprecatingly.
Sunday, and the tournament is really starting, contenders bumping heads.
Melbourne Park was a valley of the giants as Ivo Karlovic, 6-10, Isner, 6-9, and Juan Martin Del Potro, 6-7 – the biggest guys trio — trotted out their stuff.
Then they trotted home because their stuff wasn’t good enough. Big wasn’t beautiful this time around. Tennis ain’t basketball.
Even though Karlovic, the world leader in aces, had 28, Nadal had only one bad set. Otherwise Rafa made the Leaning Tower of Zagreb tumble 6-4, 4-6, 7-4, 6-4. Nadal says he’s getting better all the time, but he’s not the Rafa of a year ago.
It was the – ahem – little guys’ day: Murray 6-3, Nadal 6-1, Marin Cilic 6-6. Cilic the chiller froze out the U.S. Open champ Del Potro, 5-7, 6-4, 7-5, 5-7, 6-3. (Oh well, Del Potro was my pick.) Theirs was a mad, excrutiating shotmaking battle going to the Croat who almost lost a second rounder to a 17-year-old Aussie, Bernard Tomic, in five sets.
Let me know if you see any Whirling Dervishes.