Across the net, a mirror image of what Andy Murray once was; in the stands, a stony-faced embodiment of hope for what he yet might be.
Murray’s 6-4, 6-2 defeat to Daniil Medvedev at the Miami Open called to mind the days when the former world No 1 made the court feel smaller with his extraordinary movement and exerted suffocating pressure with the quality and consistency of his return game.
The problem for Murray was that those qualities are Medvedev’s calling card now, and to watch the top-seeded Russian scamper and harry behind the baseline, soaking up pressure and forcing Murray to toil ever harder behind his serve, was to be reminded of what has been lost from the 34-year-old’s game since he was fitted for a metal hip three years ago.
Even so, there were some encouraging signs that the rekindling of Murray’s coaching partnership with Ivan Lendl, who was seated at courtside here, could prove fruitful. The self-berating chuntering was dialled down a notch and the focus turned up – a sure sign of Murray’s enduring respect for his former mentor. And while he may no longer be quite the indefatigable chaser of lost causes that he once was, Murray’s movement and hitting out of the corners was nonetheless mighty impressive at times. A running forehand pass in game two was vintage Murray, while in the eighth game another slingshot winner off the same wing had even the telescopically-limbed Medvedev flailing at thin air.
By then, however, Murray was already a break down and facing an uphill battle to avoid defeat in his second match for a sixth successive tournament. A flurry of forehand errors cost him his serve in the third game and Medvedev, who can reclaim the No 1 ranking from Novak Djokovic by reaching the semi-finals this week, turned the screw with the relentless quality of his serving and metronomic returns.
“I managed to serve well, and I think that was one of the keys today,” said Medvedev, who will face Pedro Martínez of Spain, the world No 47, in round three.
“No break points for him. When it’s tough for you to get a break point, it works on both sides, you get more pressure on your serve. I think that’s what kind of happened, because the second set was going pretty tight in the beginning, but he just cracked just a little bit and I managed to take it.”
Murray, who will now join forces with Lendl for an extended training block in Florida, echoed Medvedev’s analysis.
“My level of tennis is obviously not right now where it needs to be to win matches like that,” said Murray, who won barely half of his first serve points and claimed just 12 points all match against the Russian’s delivery.
“I think today there was some good signs on the court, but the two key things in tennis are serve and return, and I didn’t do either of them particularly well. Against Dano, [who] I think, certainly in the first set, served extremely well and also in the important moments. I didn’t do that.”
Murray’s early departure from Indian Wells, where he was beaten by Alexander Bublik, meant he was able to get in a few practice sessions with Lendl before the second leg of the “Sunshine Double”. He felt the benefits against Medvedev, he said, but suggested it would take time to get “some clarity over the right way to play and the right way to practice” after 18 months in which he feels his training has focused on the wrong things. The goal, said Murray, is to “get my game into a place where it’s more competitive against the top players again”.
Hailing his opponent’s fighting spirit, Medvedev said Murray, who beat Hubert Hurkacz and Jannik Sinner last year and extended Stefanos Tsitsipas to a fifth set at the US Open, has already demonstrated his potential to reclaim a place among the world’s elite.
“I have huge, huge respect for him,” said the Russian. “He had a lot of wins [in the] last few years and a lot of tight matches where he could have won, and it was just a matter of a few points, maybe just a little of confidence.
“So me personally, I see him coming back to the top. I think it’s possible. I’m sure that’s why he’s continuing to play. At the same time, maybe it’s not going to happen. But what he’s doing is amazing, I think… He’s an amazing fighter, and I love it.”