If Andy Murray ever decides to write another memoir, it will surely be entitled Endurance. No word better describes the extraordinary survival instinct that has come to define Murray in the autumn of his career, and which was once again magnificently apparent as he reached the final of the Qatar Open in Doha after saving five match points against Jiri Lehecka of the Czech Republic.
It was the latest spectacular Houdini act in a season that has already been full of them. Six of the seven matches Murray has played this season have gone the distance, and he has now saved match points in three of them. At 35 and playing with a metal hip, the former world No 1 is redefining the limits of tennis mortality, rewriting the laws of sporting probability, and shredding the nerves of family and fans alike.
Murray has long been a master of escapology, but his talent for digging himself out of a hole has reached fresh heights in Doha.
“A straight sets win once in a while would be nice,” Judy Murray quipped on social media after watching her son fend off three match points in the opening round against Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego. Evidently Murray wasn’t listening. He subsequently survived a three-hour battle with Alexander Zverev, the Olympic champion and former world No 2, before battling back from a set down against the French qualifier Alexandre Muller. So much for keeping it short.
Yet neither those performances nor even his remarkable comeback from match point down against Matteo Berrettini at the Australian Open could match the magnitude of an escape that puts Murray through to his fifth final in the Qatari capital. He will now attempt to win his first title since 2019 against Daniil Medvedev, a 6-4, 7-6 (9-7) winner over Felix Auger-Aliassime.
“Andy, this is too much now,” tweeted Jamie Murray following his older brother’s 6-0, 3-6, 7-6 (8-6) win. The unbridled delight with which Murray greeted his latest success, after steering a brilliant running pass beyond Lehecka to seal victory in two hours and 29 minutes, suggested Jamie was not alone in his sense of wonderment.
“That was one of the most amazing turnarounds I’ve had in my career,” said Murray. “He obviously had the three match points at 5-4, but also I think [two] when I was serving at 5-3, I don’t know.
“I knew it was his first time maybe serving for a final, so I had to make sure that I tried to keep the pressure on at the end, because I know how difficult it is to serve matches like that out. But I’ve no idea how I managed to turn that one around, to be honest.”
It was a brutal lesson for Lehecka, who responded impressively to a first-set whitewash in what was only his second semi-final at this level. The 21-year-old Czech defeated a trio of seeds at the Australian Open last month before he was finally stopped in the quarter-finals by Stefanos Tsitsipas and, as he served at 5-4, 40-0, in the decider defeat must have been the furthest thought from his mind.
By then, however, Murray had already fended off two match points against his serve and was in no mood to relent. Three fine returns followed, each backed up by cool, measured play from the baseline, and in a trice Murray was level. Lehecka, ranked 18 places higher than Murray at No 52, matched the Scot step for step in the climactic tiebreak. The Czech saved a match point of his own at 5-6 with a bold drop shot that left his opponent nursing a jarred knee. But it did not stop Murray from conjuring a brilliant no-look forehand at full pelt to seal victory at the second time of asking.
Murray, the champion in 2008 and 2009, becomes the first player to make five finals at the event.
“This tournament over the years has had many great players,” said Murray. “[Roger] Federer played a lot, and guys like [Andy] Roddick and [Rafael] Nadal. Novak [Djokovic] has played. Those guys have obviously achieved a lot more than me, but this is one small win that I maybe can have over them.”
Victory over Medvedev in Saturday’s final would feel anything but small.