MELBOURNE — It was quite a night of tennis and ultimately a rough night for Roger Federer, who not only swore in the direction of Andy Murray but was also beaten in a Grand Slam tournament for the first time by Murray.
The British player’s poised performance in the Australian Open semifinal on Friday was in part Federer’s fault, of course.
If Federer had not set the bar quite so stratospherically high in the 2000s, Murray in his youth might have been tempted to coast on his gifts; might have been content to keep chomping candy bars and guzzling soda and putting in the practice hours but not — to toy with a British expression — the hardest yards.
If Federer had not driven Murray to tears in a series of Grand Slam finals and left him reeling with doubt and unfulfilled potential, he might never have felt the need to transform himself into quite such a physical specimen; might never have maximised his speed and his serve or hired Ivan Lendl to help him kick his nasty, energy-sapping habit of grousing at himself, his entourage and the vagaries of a game that is ill suited to the demands of a perfectionist.
But an incomplete commitment — to one’s plans, to one’s talent — simply wouldn’t cut it in the era that has belonged to Federer more than any man but has gradually, inexorably become more communal property.
The result was there for the 31-year-old Swiss icon and everyone else to see on a cool Friday night in Rod Laver Arena as Murray advanced to the Australian Open final with a five-set victory in this city where it was hard to believe that it had been blowing Sahara hot just the day before. – nytimes
