Murray's stunning triumph after staring defeat in face

14 April 2012

Brinkmanship doesn't come much finer. Puzzled by his own ineptitude, Andy Murray was sliding out of the Sony Ericsson Open on Tuesday lunchtime with barely a whimper, let alone a yell.

His game was flat and riddled with errors. Nothing he tried was working and the prospect of entering the world's top 10 this week had all but receded.

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Come on: Murray fires himself up before overcoming Mathieu in three sets

Suddenly, though, the scrapper returned to the fore. Murray stared down defeat just as fiercely as he glowered at a heckler in the crowd.

Twice in successive games in the second set, he steeled himself to save a match point before eventually overcoming Paul- Henri Mathieu 2-6, 7-5, 6-3 to take his appointed place in the quarter-finals today against Andy Roddick.

When a final backhand scudded past the Frenchman, the Grandstand Court spectators rose as one to salute his grit as much as his talent.

In many ways, this victory was as impressive as any the Scottish teenager has managed this year. To win when you are playing well is easy.

To fight against yourself when your tennis has deserted you is the hallmark of the game's elite. Murray already belongs in that bracket.

The rankings will soon offer proof. He was rightly proud of his refusal to lose. He said: "When you have been away for seven-and-a-half weeks and you're a set and a break down, the easy way out is just to lose 6-2, 6-3 because then you can get a little bit of time off.

"On long trips like this one, it's not so much the physical fatigue as the mental fatigue you feel. But I've been playing well this year and I don't want it to stop. It's not that I gave up in matches like this last year. It's just that now I'm finding a way to win.

"It happens sometimes that you just play a bad set. Everyone does it. It's about how you react, although I did leave it a little bit close to turn it around."

There was not even the slightest hint of the struggle to come when Murray serenely took Mathieu's opening service game of the match to lead 2-0.

Instantly, his control evaporated and when he sliced an easy overhead long and then struck a forehand so poorly that it ballooned high into the crowd off the frame of his racket, he was 3-2 behind.

The solidity of Murray's game was missing, presumed lost. Routine groundstrokes fell into the net or flew long and wide.

A swirling wind was not helping matters, but as Mathieu reined in his own inclination to push hard for the lines, Murray collapsed, lost six games in succession and with them the set.

The hangdog expression returned. So, too, the angst that was his usual demeanour before new coach Brad Gilbert persuaded him of the psychological benefits of positive body language.

Befuddled and bemused, he could not find his game. So frazzled was his mind that when a Mathieu shot struck the net chord and popped up asking to be despatched, Murray tamely steered the ball long. He dropped serve and trailed 4-2 in the second set.

His volleys lacked crispness, his game held no conviction. "Aaargh, play aggressively," he shouted to himself as another timid backhand found the net.

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Job done: Murray salutes his entourage after completing his comeback from a match point down in the second set

It appeared inevitable that for the first time in 2007, the Scot would lose to a player ranked below him. He refused to allow that prospect to become reality.

Mathieu remained resolute, though, and eked out a match point on the Murray serve at 5-3. From the crowd, an American voice boomed triumphantly: "Come on, Mathieu. This Murray's got nothing."

Riled, Murray hammered down a huge first serve that his opponent barely reached and then stared down the court in the direction of the voice.

Same serve, same stare and the recovery had begun. Except that, fired-up, Murray pressed too hard as Mathieu served for the match and the Frenchman held another match point.

Patience was the key. Groundstrokes were traded before Mathieu tensed up and needlessly netted a backhand. Within moments, his lead had vanished and the match had turned.

Murray added: "When that person in the crowd shouted out that I had nothing, I thought to myself: 'I do. I think I've got more than I'm putting out there'. Once I got the momentum, I had it for the rest of the match."

He also had the emotion coursing through his body. Every winner was followed by a bellow of encouragement to himself.

If there was one moment which served to tell Mathieu that this was a match he could not win, it came as he stood at set point.

Murray's defence was extraordinary as he sprinted from one side of the court to the other, hoisting lobs and stretching to his limits before finishing the point with a thunderous backhand winner. The match was his and both players knew it.

Meanwhile on Stadium Court, Serena Williams repeated her Australian Open final demolition of Maria Sharapova with a 6-1, 6-1 procession to the quarter-finals.

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