PARIS — It wasn’t quite self-loathing. It never went as far on Monday as it used to go for Andy Murray, a perfectionist in a game where perfection is simply not an option.
Let’s call it self-disliking then, and it peaked when Murray — already down two sets to none in the first round of the French Open — tried and failed to serve out the third set against Richard Gasquet.
There were mutterings, then more mutterings, then another long, slightly menacing look in the direction of his camp after he rose from his chair and shuffled to the other side of the Suzanne Lenglen court.
“Terrible,” Murray said when he arrived within earshot.
“Terrible,” he repeated.
“Terrible!” he concluded.
And so it had been, but clay-court tennis at Roland Garros is a marathon, not a sprint, and Murray, who once had a big junk food habit has gradually transformed himself into a serious professional athlete in the past three seasons. That transformation played a big role in the comeback to come on Monday as Murray rallied to win, 4-6, 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 6-2, 6-1, on this warm and sunny Monday. “He changed his world,” said Gil Reyes, the American fitness trainer, during a recent interview.
Reyes helped change Andre Agassi’s world and has done the same with Fernando Verdasco and admires the fitness work that Murray has done. “When I knew that Murray had changed was when he started doing this in matches,” Reyes said, flexing his right bicep.
Murray, who has struggled since reaching the Australian Open final in January, saved his flexing until after he served an ace on match point on Monday, but then this was more Davis Cup encounter than Grand Slam encounter with Gasquet, a very flashy Frenchman trying to fight his way back to relevance on the other side of the net after missing the last two French Opens.
The British might outnumber the French in some parts of Provence, Brittany and the Dordogne, but that was not the case on the Suzanne Lenglen court. Murray was sage enough to avoid letting his body language get too bellicose, though he did complain to the chair umpire about the pace of play.
But beating Gasquet was proving difficult enough without the crowd getting nasty. It was tough on Murray’s home turf at Wimbledon two years ago, too, when Murray also rallied from two sets down to beat Gasquet in five sets in the fading light on Centre Court in the round of 16. That, as it turned out, was a pivotal match for both men: part of Gasquet’s tumble from the top 10 and part of Murray’s rise into the top five.
When these two 23-year-olds walked on court Monday, Murray was seeded 4th and Gasquet was ranked 68th and not seeded at all, but the Frenchman, once his country’s great tennis hope, was flying higher after winning back-to-back tournaments: a challenger in Bordeaux and a regular tour event in Nice last week. He has a new coach this year: the former Argentine player Gabriel Markus, who liked clay courts the best during his career.
Gasquet is also attempting to rebuild his image after last year’s long-running drama in which he was suspended after testing positive for cocaine: a test result he persuaded sport authorities was due to a kiss at a Miami night club.
It was and remains an intriguing defense, and for close to three diverting sets Gasquet played plenty of fine defense and offense on the Paris clay. His one-handed backhand remains one of the shots worth the price of admission in men’s tennis. But competing too much too close to Roland Garros is a gamble: there is a reason men like Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Murray avoid it. And though Gasquet requested a Tuesday start, he got Monday instead.
Murray was the fresher, fitter man, despite two visits from the medical staff to Gasquet’s chair after the third and fourth sets.
“I just felt a huge loss of energy and couldn’t do it anymore,” Gasquet said. “I had a problem with recovery after Nice. I would have liked to have an extra day. I think it could have made a difference, but it’s a Grand Slam. I’m just happy to have played again at Roland Garros.; I really missed it last year.”
But this year only Murray gets to keep playing and though he is not hitting the ball with the same belief or consistent accuracy as he was last season or in Australia before Roger Federer popped his balloon, beating Gasquet in five sets is a time-tested way of helping his career.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/25/sports/tennis/25iht-ARENA.html?hp
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