TENNIS US OPENFOR AN insight into the player who blocks his way to a fifth grand slam final, Andy Murray need do no more than turn to his coach, Ivan Lendl, who knows Tomas Berdych probably as well as he knows the Scot.

“I know the guy who is responsible for the success of Czech tennis [Miroslav Cernosek], who manages him,” Lendl says before heading for the practice courts with Murray ahead of today’s semi-final at Flushing Meadows.

“I go to their centre in Projektov in the Czech Republic. They have courts, fitness, massages, rehab and I love being there, so I’ve followed him for quite a bit now – and he’s getting better. I talk to him in the locker room, Andy played him in Monte Carlo.”

He lost that match, and three others in six meetings with the moody, brittle and sometimes brilliant Berdych. That was on clay – as was Murray’s defeat to him in Paris. On hard courts, it is a slightly different story, but no less of a mountain, as Murray acknowledges. Lendl will not allow him to either ramp this match up beyond its significance or ignore its dangers. “It’s a semi-final,” he said. “We didn’t come here for semi-finals.”

What is intriguing about the relationship between Murray and Lendl is how they respect each other’s space, maintaining the delicate balance between employee and employer, the player who is yet to fulfil his potential and the coach who won eight grand slam titles. It says much about their canniness that, in the 10 months they have been together they have not had a single significant argument, and that is not always the case in tennis.

Murray absolutely thrives on pressure. He has played the game since he was 10 years old and coming to the last weekend of a slam at 25 is what motivates him. Berdych is his immediate challenge and he should be equal to it, perhaps in four tough sets.

And not for a moment will Murray be thinking about the final. The game, the tournament and the opponents are too volatile a mix to accommodate easy assumptions.

As Novak Djokovic said after getting through his own tough quarter-final: “You have Murray, Berdych, Ferrer, myself, we’re all top 10 players. Maybe for some people it was surprising to see Roger lose because he’s been so consistent and dominant in the last couple of years. He’s always expected to get to at least the semi-finals of every grand slam. But look, Berdych deserved to win. He came up with incredible tennis. I have never seen him play that well. This is tennis.”

Guardian Service