1 Response to ao17zverev_murray

1. Voo de Mar says:

   September 13, 2020 at 10:25 pm

   Points won by each set: [ 49-42, 33-44, 30-19, 34-31 ]
   Points won directly behind the serve:
   27 % Zverev – 38 of 137
   22 % Murray – 33 of 145

   Career best win for the 30-year-old German [50] of the Russian origin. “The serve-and-volley art is still alive” he could say after his brilliant performance on Rod Laver Arena. If someone had asked me about my prediction before the match, I would have said “Murray in 3, perhaps one tie-break required”. The Scot finished the 2016 season in amazing form, and even though he lost his impressive winning streak two weeks earlier in Doha, he entered the match against Zverev – whom had easily beaten in their only previous meeting – with a 31-1 record counting the past four months. Despite many years on the tour Zverev had never played before such a prestigious match, but from the beginning his confident attitude surprised the crowd. The opener was tricky: Murray [1] had a game point to lead 4:1, then saved a double break point at 3-all, led *5:3 (30-all), and all of a sudden lost four consecutive games, and the long set. In the 2nd set he wasted a break advantage twice, also four set points at 5:4*, but leading 6:5 he played four great backhand passing-shots in succession to break at ‘love’. The majority of spectators could have expected two easy sets for him in the consequence, but as he led 2:1* (30/15) in the 3rd set he played a very poor lob, screamed in anger and something unimaginable happened – Zverev took 7 consecutive games! When Murray snapped the streak, he acted like he finally realized that his opponent was playing the match of his life, and began to fight ferociously, but it was too late… Nevertheless he almost broke back as Zverev was serving to close the match out: the German found himself at nervous 15/30 and got the following two points with two acrobatic moves, he was also quite lucky producing a winner overhead from no-man’s land for 15-all earlier in the game. On the first match point Murray sent his forehand return wide, and the second unbelievable upset of the event became real (Istomin [117] defeated Djokovic [2] in the second round).

   # Comparison of Murray’s two similar Grand Slam 4-set defeats:
   US Open 2014 (QF): Djokovic d. Murray 7-6, 6-7, 6-2, 6-4… 3 hours 32 minutes… Total points: 150-135
   Aus Open 2017 (4R): Zverev d. Murray 7-5, 5-7, 6-2, 6-4… 3 hours 34 minutes… Total points: 146-136

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