Wimbledon: Murray trounces rattled Janowicz to reach finals

Andy Murray celebrates his semi-final victory

After the rousing quality of the first match, Andy Murray and Jerzy Janowicz stepped on court knowing they had a tough act to follow. The Pole was only in his first grand slam semi-final and Murray made the most of his inexperience and tentativeness to shut him out with tactical nous and clever placement.

Murray lost a close first set tie-breaker before coming back strongly to deny the Pole 6-7(2), 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 in an entertaining two hour 52 minute effort inside the closed roof on centre court to reach the finals of Wimbledon for the second straight year. When he walks out on Sunday along with Novak Djokovic, Murray (missed the French through injury) will be playing his fourth straight grand slam final since Wimbledon last year.

The serve was always going to be the key in a match featuring Janowicz. But then, Murray brought his returns to bear – chipping back the first and stepping inside on the second, to challenge Janowicz to come up with the goods. The young Pole was often rattled by Murray’s tactics, double faulting ever so often to gift free points to his opponent. The crowd was firmly behind Murray, as expected, irking Janowicz and costing the young man his focus. In the end Murray packed too much experience and wisdom for the still evolving Janowicz.

Janowicz faced a break point as early as the fourth game, but saw it off with his serve. To his credit, Murray himself was as confident as he could be establishing an easy rhythm, holding without fuss to stay with the powerful Pole.

Serving to stay in the set at 4-5, Janowicz fell to 15-40. Incredibly, he only needed second serves to bail himself out of trouble and keep the set alive. In the ensuing tie-break, Murray lost his first two serves to fall down 0-4 and never quite recovered from there. Janowicz took the tie-break 7-2 to raise possibilities of a grand upset.

But the world No. 2 is a seasoned player and he recovered quickly. A brilliant dipping forehand winner that caught the baseline chalk gave Murray a sniff at 15-30 in the first game of the second set. Only moments before, the crowd had let out an ear-splitting roar and the rattled Janowicz lost focus to double fault twice and surrender an early break.

Murray protected the break all the way through the set, to level the match at one set a piece holding easily in the tenth game. The Scot was back in the match and so were his noisy fans inside on centre court and out there on the mound.

But the 6’8” Janowicz had his own plans to silence the boisterous and partisan band of Murray supporters. Making good use of the backhand slice and his beastly forehand, the Pole stole a break from the blue to take a 4-1 lead.

Murray brought the crowd straight back into the match, when he broke back in the seventh game with an exquisite drop shot. Riding the turnaround, Murray held serve to claw back into the set at 4-4. The Brit took advantage of a double fault to break in the next game and inch closer to wrapping up the set.

His fifth game in a row came with an ace, like a ribbon on a present to complete the impressive turnaround to take the third set. With the momentum firmly on his wing, Murray was clearly peeved by the referee’s decision to suspend play to close the roof. But Janowicz had sought the change and the umpire would not have denied the Pole at that stage.

Janowicz’s eighth double fault offered two break points to the hurt but determined Murray. Janowicz saved the first with a powerful smash, but slumped into the net with his forehand on the next point to leave Murray gritting his teeth at 2-1 in the fourth set.

Sunday’s final will be a repeat of last year’s Olympic semi-final between Murray and Djokovic, which the former won

With time running out, Janowicz sought to force the issue in the eighth game, but Murray was more than prepared for the challenge. Playing with aggression, both men found themselves at the net playing an almost doubles like rally, before an alert Murray won the point to the rousing rapture of the packed centre court crowd.

Denied an opening, Janowicz was serving at 3-5, only a game away from walking through the exit gate. As his double fault numbers reached double figures, Janowicz found himself two points away from defeat. The Pole provided some more assistance when he dumped an eleventh double to offer match point to Murray.

A return winner off a second serve on the next point was enough to see off Janowicz into the dark night. On a night when he needed his serve the most, Janowicz was deserted by his good friend – eleven double faults and 55% first serve percentage proved too dear against someone of the calibre of Murray.

Besides, Murray had 15 unforced errors compared to a whopping 43 for Janowicz. While Murray kept his serve numbers in the 70′s, Janowicz could only muster 27 of 58 points on his second serve. “Such a shame, I didn’t play my best tennis today but deep down I’m really happy,” said the content Janowicz.

“I’ve only played him (Djokovic) on grass here at the Olympics,” said Murray. “I’ll take that into Sunday.” And for the third time in four grand slam events, it will be Murray against Djokovic contesting for the big prize.

For all the noise about an upset riddled Wimbledon, we have the top two players contesting for the greatest tennis prize on offer. There is really not much amiss after all.