A warm glow fell over Centre Court. It was a feelgood vibe, a sense that there was still order in the draw, that Andy Murray had the rule of the very large man across the net from him.
Ivo Karlovic was never going to surprise the Scot. He was never going to turn up and play a fancy inventive game like Dustin Brown or Nick Kyrgios. He was never going to haul himself through long sessions of trading strokes with Murray from the back court. Karlovic had only one thing on his mind.
It was Andre Agassi who once explained what it was like to face tall players with bombing serves. In his day it was Pete Sampras and Goran Ivanisevich. Agassi explained that the hard part was watching the ball fly past at 140mph in the deuce court before then turning and walking to the Ad court to watch another blur at 138mph rebound off the back wall. Then do the same thing over and over until during one service game you notice a chink in your opponent.
Crushed
The paces comes off the serve, the toss is not as smooth or the rhythm changes. You take that opportunity or you get crushed. Agassi was one of the best returners. Murray is too and his ability to impossibly put his racquet on the Karlovic deliveries along with his patience in being able to watch 29 balls scorch the grass and not waver, won him a place in the quarter-finals on Monday.
“It was three- or four-shot rallies, loads of short rallies,” said Murray afterwards.
“I expected a lot of the games to come down to one or two points and I was delighted how it went. Very often he comes out on top in matches like that.”
The surprise is that all four sets did not go down to tiebreaks. The first was but the back three were skilfully negotiated by the number three seed. While he dropped the third in his 7-6(7), 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 win, Murray was commanding and largely in control over the three hours.
Karlovic won 33 points at the net following his serve and feeding off Murray’s scramble to return, but he had 32 unforced errors compared to Murray’s nine.
Murray actually served better. He won 80 per cent of his first serves, higher than Karlovic and 58 per cent of his second serves, also better than his opponent, despite the Karlovic’s average speed being almost 20 mph faster.
“I tried some variety throughout the match so that he wouldn’t feel that comfortable. I took a little bit off the first serve to not allow him the opportunity to go for huge returns. Against him it’s a tactical match but it’s tough, it’s quite stressful to play against him.”
Australian Nick Kyrgios was forced to deny he stopped playing during his match against Richard Gasquet. Kyrgios lost the match and is out of the singles draw, but appeared to lose interest for a game in the second set.
It was a typical moody exchange with the teenager, but he did not deny that he stopped after he received a code violation. At one point the crowd started booing him.
“Just frustration,” explained Kyrgios. “I mean, it’s tough out there. You know, I don’t really know what else to say. You know, I’m not perfect out there. I’m going to have ups and downs. That’s the way you respond from that. I think it takes some serious balls to respond the way I did.”
Did the crowd misjudge you when they were booing, he was asked.
“Yeah, and then I started playing well and they started cheering . . . Did you hear that, too?”
Spotlight
Andy Murray weighed into the issue. Murray is friendly with Kyrgios and has spoken to him a number of times. Murray also grew up in the public spotlight and believes Kyrgios needs the right people around him.
"It's not easy. He'll find his way, for sure," said Murray. " But I think, you know, he'll hopefully have good people around him that can help him, people that have, you know, experienced being on the tour. Guys like Lleyton Hewitt and Pat Rafter and these guys will be able to help with that. It's important to listen to them, I would say."
