Murray outlasts Del Potro in the Montreal final

Video Clips: First set | Second set | Third set | Presentation

Andy Murray once again solidified himself as one of the main contenders in the upcoming US Open with a Masters win in Montreal over Juan Martin Del Potro in the final. But what information can we take from his form this week?

Murray and Del Potro are starting to develop a strong rivalry, and today’s match was yet another competitive affair like their last couple of encounters. It was originally thought that Murray possessed the variety that could unravel Del Potro’s game, but it hasn’t really turned out to be the case.

Del Potro is starting to develop a more complete game, making subtle changes in his game but without losing sight of what makes him so difficult to play against. These days it’s becoming increasingly difficult to break down Del Potro’s game. It’s been a while since Del Potro has been made to look clumsy, discounting the Wimbledon loss to Hewitt which looked more like a surface-specific loss in hindsight. He isn’t only staying consistent, he’s improving and becoming a much better big match player.

One of the most impressive things about his performances this week has been shotmaking under pressure. In fact, he’s not only ice cool under pressure. I really think he plays even better when he needs to. He finds his best serves. He hits the ball harder and closer to the lines, whereas he’s happier to play a more balanced game at other times. When Del Potro hits the ball as hard as he can, it’s incredibly hard. It draws gasps from the crowd, and his opponents can’t see it coming because he uses practically the same backswing.

The quality of the match wasn’t great. It was more about the battle and the occasion. Murray started off the match with a clear game plan, trying to move Del Potro short and wide out of his comfort zone. He was playing the better tennis of the two, but with little reward as Del Potro managed to hold on the back of his strong serving.

Early on in the match, they showed a comparison of the shot placement of both Murray and Del Potro and there was a huge contrast. Del Potro’s shots were mainly down the centre of the court, and his backhand wasn’t firing as well as it had been in the last couple of matches either. Murray’s placement was far better, accurate and varied, not only terms in width but depth as well, forcing Del Potro to move up and down the court.

Del Potro clearly didn’t like it, and at one stage he looked completely confused as to what to do on the court. It’s not often you see Del Potro attempting drop shots, and clearly it was a sign of resignation more than anything else. But he held on with good serving, and started to find his way into the match just as the match was starting to reach its climax. For someone that is known for having a one-dimensional game, Del Potro did a good job of changing his tactics and exploring a more all-court game. I’m sure that even a couple of months ago, he wouldn’t have attempted something like this.

I’ve rarely seen Del Potro miss any simple volleys, and even the medium difficulty volleys are very solid. He understands better than most that it’s not necessary to overplay them, and he’s okay with hitting a second volley if he needs to. Just like how he approaches the rest of his game. It wasn’t necessarily his decision to come forward that helped him, but I think that whole mindset helped him play a more purposeful game. To construct his points in a way that would lead to an attacking approach shot.

With Del Potro not hanging around in the long rallies as much as he did earlier, it really exposed Murray’s lack of finishing ability on his shots. He essentially nudges his opponents around, but he’ll always give his opponents a sniff at regaining control. It’s fine for the majority of players, but it’s dangerous with Del Potro because he can generate so much power on the run with his long wingspan. And when Del Potro takes control of a point, he doesn’t back off or let you off the hook. That’s where I think Del Potro is better than Murray.

I wonder what was going inside of Murray’s head as the match progressed, as he began to lose sight of his tactics more and more. Did he come out with tactics that were specifically discussed by his coaching team, then lost track of it as he started to lose himself in the battle? Sometimes it’s easy to start to focus on the little things, and forget about the bigger picture which is what seemed to happen here. I think, while it’s fine initially in the rally to hit that slow probing shot to move Del Potro out of court, he needs to step it up to take advantage of the openings he creates for himself. He can’t keep letting his opponents back into points.

They showed on the statistics count late in the second set that Murray had only approached the net about 10 times compared to Del Potro’s 27 times. To some extent that’s because Del Potro’s groundstrokes are more penetrating, but I still see Murray as being capable of stretching his opponents out wide to the point where they can only block back shots. Not to mention that his volleying ability is better than Del Potro’s.

To be fair, the credit lies with Del Potro in the first set for playing great points, and for being more adventurous. Apparently he won the first set tie-break with 6 outright winners. To break Murray’s serve to crucially win the tie-break, he leaned in on a backhand and followed it up to the net. I can only count on one hand the amount of times that Del Potro has ever followed up a return into the net. That has to be admired, trying out something new on a big point, on one of the make-or-break points of the first set.

Unfortunately from here on in, Del Potro started to fight an uphill battle with himself, fighting fatigue from his physical exertions of the last couple of weeks. He saved a couple of break points in his first service game of the second set in quite spectacular fashion, with big shots but eventually conceded the game through inconsistency. He was no longer left with much choice as to how he could play this match. He had to be aggressive and shorten the points.

Murray could sense that this was his chance to seize control of the match, knowing that his next service game was potentially a great chance to stamp his authority on the match. The problem was that Del Potro sensed the same thing and played his best game of the match to break serve. He summoned all of the energy he could find in an attempt to hit Murray off the court, ripping winners from the baseline. Murray was furious with himself, knowing that as long as the match stayed even, Del Potro still had every chance to win on the back of his serve, and he was still dangerous off the ground playing such an aggressive game. Murray had to be careful not to give him too many second serves to work off.

Murray wasn’t happy with his returns. Usually he gets his biggest advantage with his return of serve, which is usually deep and accurate. He couldn’t seem find his timing on Del Potro’s serve often enough, not finding enough depth on his return. Maybe the trajectory of Del Potro’s shots coming down from a great height makes it more difficult to block back effectively, to make use of those short backswings. It must be said that it’s not like anyone else has been able to effectively figure out how to deal with Del Potro’s serve this week either. He’s been consistently hitting it with accuracy close to the lines.

As the match entered the second set tie-break, the curious question was whether Del Potro would be able to make yet another quick surge, knowing that he was close to the finishing line. He tried to, and as long as he was still winning points, the adrenaline was still there to carry him through. But one tired forehand error midway into the tie-break, and the body language had significantly changed. He could no longer summon any additional energy and he didn’t have the belief anymore.

The third set continued in the same vein, and it became obvious that this was Murray’s title to win. The only way Del Potro was going to win this in this condition was on the back of his serve. Except that his serve had now significantly slowed down, so it turned into a one-sided blowout.

Still, Del Potro can take a lot of positives from this tournament. He’s definitely much more of a contender for big events than he used to be, more capable of upsetting the best players and better at performing under pressure. Though I still question whether he can perform under pressure as well against the likes of Federer and Nadal compared to Djokovic, Roddick and Murray because he did look a little shaky against Nadal the other day in the first set.