There have been times this year when the positive vibes around Andy Murray have been trending firmly upwards.
There was the 10-match winning streak across back-to-back grass events on the ATP Challenger Tour. There was the run of four consecutive three-set victories that saw him reach the final of the Qatar Open.
Murray twice served for the win from 5-2 up in the third set and had a match point, but couldn’t close it out.
That Murray let slip a similar advantage against De Minaur in Beijing a month ago – again losing from 5-2 up in the third set, this time having seen three match points vanish – can only have added to the pain.
While Murray has now lost four times to De Minaur in 2023, it is the last two defeats which sum up how his game has dissipated in the second half of the season.
With his first-round exit in Paris, Murray has not won back-to-back matches since early August. He has also lost five of his last six.
The frustration in Murray is plain to see – and is understandable.
In 2016 he was crowned world No. 1 at the Paris Masters after an incredible run to finish the season. Murray is likely not expecting to hit those dizzying heights again, but he is also not at the level that he was earlier this year.
It has become a trademark of Murray’s game in the last few years that wins do not come easily.
Just seven of Murray’s 16 victories this season have been in straight sets, and his propensity for long matches was joked about during a recent player Q&A, with Grigor Dimitrov asking if Murray planned on playing any matches under three hours in the coming months.
“Yeah I’ve love to do that,” replied Murray with a laugh.
How Murray might do should have been the next question.
After the latest defeat to De Minaur he said he is not getting as many “free points” as he would like.
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“You play a three-hour match on a fast indoor court and I’m not really getting loads of free points on my serve,” he is quoted as saying by The Times.
“It’s quite an important part of the game now. Lots of the guys are serving big, getting a lot of free points and it used to be something I could rely on quite a lot. I’m not doing that now.”
Not only are the free points not coming as easily as they once did, but Murray is not closing out matches with the clutchness that he once did.
Against De Minaur in Beijing two match points were passed up with forehand errors. Two more misses on the forehand then gave the Australian the win after Murray had fought back from 5-2 in the deciding tie-break to lead 6-5.
In Paris it was a similar story as a framed forehand went long on match point at 5-4. Another two misses handed De Minaur the break back, and a forehand into the net a few games later sealed defeat for Murray.
“Those sorts of situations have happened quite a lot this year, and that’s not really me. It’s not enjoyable,” said Murray afterwards.
Murray has also let one-set leads slip against Stefanos Tsitsipas at Wimbledon, Taylor Fritz in Washington DC, Aslan Karatsev in Zhuhai, and Tomas Etcheverry in Basel.
It’s not just in matches where things aren’t working well for Murray either.
“In practice there’s just a lot of frustration there with my game,” he reflected after defeat in Paris.
Can Murray turn things around and reignite his chances of finally getting seeded again at a Grand Slam? The off-season could be pivotal.
One thing’s for sure: he will be hoping that he won’t meet De Minaur again anytime soon.
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