MASON, Ohio — Andy Murray glared at his racket, stared at the lines and complained to the chair umpire, but the truth is he jinxed himself at the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters.
Murray, ranked No. 2 in the world, was like the baseball player who comments on how the innings are flying by, and the next thing he knows the game is going into extra innings. On Thursday, after his second straight-sets victory in two days, Murray noted that his path to the quarterfinals had been the tennis equivalent of the express lane.
“Well, I’ve had two quick matches,” he said, adding, “Yeah, feel pretty fresh.”
On Friday, he needed all the energy he had saved to get past the Frenchman Julien Benneteau, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1. Joining Murray in the semifinals are the other players ranked in the top four: No. 1 Roger Federer, No. 3 Rafael Nadal and No. 4 Novak Djokovic, only the 13th time that has happened on the men’s tour in 25 years.
Murray’s match, played in a mercurial wind, took 2 hours 11 minutes and turned on the longest point of this (or most any) week. It came in the second set, with Benneteau ahead by two games to love and serving at 30-40. He and Murray exchanged 53 shots — four of which were remarkable recoveries by Murray. The last of his desperate lunges produced a lob that Benneteau smashed only to watch with a pained expression as the ball grazed the net and sailed wide.
It was the longest rally either player could remember having in a competitive match. A deflated Benneteau won only two more games.
“It made a big difference” Murray said. “You know, I think he was very tired after that rally.” He added: “He slowed down a lot and he stopped chasing balls that he was chasing in the first set. So you know, I think that point affected him more than me.”
How could it not? Benneteau, a qualifier, had needed more than three hours to dispatch his third-round opponent, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, and came into the match having already logged 8 hours 38 minutes on the court. He gained entry into the tournament as a lucky loser when Juan Martín del Potro withdrew.
“Yes, I was a little bit tired, for sure, at the end,” Benneteau said. “But it’s because of him. Because he makes me run everywhere, some drop shots, some balls very deep.” He added: “I told myself during the match, ‘Keep going, maybe it can be a semifinal at the end,’ but it’s like that. The best won.”
Murray’s semifinal opponent will be the only player ahead of him in the rankings, Federer, who defeated a former No. 1, Lleyton Hewitt, 6-3, 6-4. After beating Federer in their first three meetings, Hewitt has lost in their last 13.“I understand it’s going to be a very difficult match,” Murray said. “I just look forward to the challenge of playing one of the best ever.”
Murray, who is 6-2 against Federer, knows he will have to play better than he did Friday to make it to his second consecutive final (he defeated del Potro in Montreal on Sunday). “I played a really, really poor first set,” Murray said. “I served really badly.”
He was not exaggerating; he had six double faults against two aces.
On the bright side, to survive and advance without his best stuff was a confidence boost for Murray, who said, “These are the matches that, you know, when you play badly and you don’t feel great and you’re not hitting the ball well, when you can come through matches like that it’s a lot better.”
The Lindner Family Tennis Center crowd appreciated that it did not get any better than a 53-stroke rally. The fans at Center Court stood and applauded both players when it was over. While breathtaking, it came nowhere near the longest point on record, a 643-shot rally between Vicki Nelson-Dunbar and Jean Hepner in a Women’s Tennis Association match in 1984.
Murray was asked if he could imagine being part of a point that long. “I think the game physically has changed so much that, you know, your legs get tired because you’re always changing direction,” he said. “If you’re just sort of moonballing, you don’t get tired because you’re not really putting anything into the shots. So you’ll probably never see a rally like that on the men’s tour.”
SERENA WILLIAMS ADVANCES In Toronto, second-seeded Serena Williams breezed to the semifinals of the Rogers Cup with a straight-sets victory over Lucie Safarova. Williams, the 2001 tournament champion, was rarely challenged in a 6-3, 6-2 victory against Safarova, the 46th-ranked qualifier. Williams will face No. 4 Elena Dementieva, who advanced with a tough three-set win over Samantha Stosur, 6-7 (3), 6-1, 6-3. (AP)
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