For the first 10 years of his career, Andy Murray failed to reach the final of a clay court event. On hard courts, he collected 25 titles during this period and five on grass.
The Scot won a tournament even on carpet, but in 37 events on clay courts, he never progressed beyond the last four – until this month.
In the space of six days, he has collected two clay-court titles, including a Masters, and came into this week’s Rome Masters, which began on Sunday, with a nine-match unbeaten streak.
Last Monday, he beat Philipp Kohlschreiber in the rain-delayed Munich final and a day later, he had a rematch with the German in Madrid, which was another three-set affair.
From there, it was smooth sailing as Murray beat Marcel Granollers, Milos Raonic, Kei Nishikori and Rafael Nadal in straight sets to lift the title and be in great form with the French Open only 13 days away.
This is Murray's first win against Nadal on clay in seven attempts and it came on the Spaniard's home court of Madrid. The turnaround, if you believe Murray, is because of his marriage to long-time partner Kim Sears last month.
“Marriage works,” he gleefully wrote on one of the courtside TV cameras after the win over Nadal. “I’ve always said if the personal stuff is happy and under control that helps your performance on the court,” Murray said later.
Those words might look like an attempt to please his new wife, but given Murray’s complex personality and complicated game, he has spoken the truth.
In the past, pundits have often over analysed Murray’s lack of success, forgetting that he is playing in an era of probably three of the greatest players in tennis history.
One of them, Nadal, is probably the best clay court player ever, with nine French Opens to his name, and his presence means Novak Djokovic is still searching for his first French Open title, while Roger Federer, was lucky to get one.
But when we talk about Murray’s lack of success on clay courts, which he is happy to admit is his “worst surface”, it has been easy to talk about movement and flawed sliding on the court, his lack of power to hit through the court and how the slow surface neutralises his speed.
All that sounds good on paper but, on the court, as Murray said in Madrid, what matters most is the state of his head.
Marriage has certainly helped with that, but the addition of Jonas Bjorkman to his coaching team has also had a big part to play.
Bjorkman, known as a locker-room joker during his playing days, is a refreshing departure from the brooding nature of Ivan Lendl, the coach with whom Murray won the US Open in 2012 and Wimbledon in 2013.
The Swede’s positive presence, then, could help in keeping Murray’s honeymoon going for a much longer time.
arizvi@thenational.ae
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