Rewinding Memories: 2007 Australian Open - Rafa versus Murray

The Australian Open has seen many memorable matches in the past. Players coming back from sets down to snatch victories, match-points being failed to be converted, known players versus unknown upstarts, marathons and epics; the Australian Open has seen it all and then some more. The years continue to roll-by, but matches and performances linger in the minds and hearts – forever and for eternity.

It’s amidst the likes of these matches – rated as the best that the tournament has ever seen – that the fourth round encounter between Rafa Nadal and Andy Murray in 2007 features. A match played well into the early morning hours, the five-set epic was truly a stepping stone for both players. For Rafa, his first quarter-final appearance at the Australian Open; and for Murray, a heralding that this was no youngster to be taken lightly. Professional fortunes might have changed today with Rafa missing the season’s starting action and Murray being touted as one of the top-favourites to win the Slam, but on that day, six years ago, it was promises and not fortunes that kept the tennis world agog and on its feet, waiting for a definite outcome.

The Spaniard, ranked second in the world, but without much of a presence in the harder courts, whereas his opponent, seeded 15^th, regarded by all as a worthy competitor yet comparatively less-favoured because of behavioural oddities. Clinical finishes to their earlier rounds meant that both were evenly matched, though many contested Murray’s ability to pip Nadal to enter the last eight. But none could have expected the match to go on for as long as it did. Lengthy and drawn-out baseline rallies with some spectacular approaches to the net, back and forth; the match was a statistician’s delight. Both dominated, though eventually, the dominance of the Spaniard proved to be a touch too strong for the resiliency of the Scot.

Leading with a set and a break in the second, only to eventually lose the set, the Scot’s rawness showed more glaringly than his opponent’s. And though he did well enough to take the third set 6-3, his continued laments about fitness issues didn’t exactly endear him to the crowds or to the critics for that matter. On the other hand, where the Scot grew distracted, the Spaniard’s game flourished, allowing him to get back into the match. Levelling the match in the fourth set and allowing Murray to win just three games, the Spaniard went into the fifth with more ruthlessness than during the whole course of the match.

The end perhaps came too abruptly – no one watching the first four sets would have expected a 6-1 annihilation of Murray – but not too abruptly to forget the match. That year, only one other match came anywhere close to this marathon, the battle between sixth-seeded Roddick and ninth-seeded Croat, Mario Ancic, in which the American prevailed.

And though Rafa didn’t last long enough to savour his hard-fought fourth round epic, falling prey to Gonzo as did many before and after him, in the latter remaining rounds; Tony Nadal’s protégé wasn’t hidden in the shadows when it came to the faster courts anymore. He still had a long way to go, that was a given, but there was no way he was letting go without a fight. Yet another reason why his absence rankles even more this year.

As regards Murray, as remarkable as his start was that year, his momentum didn’t last long with injuries and other inconsistencies taking a toll on him one after another. That year saw him change coaches again, quite to the surprise of many, especially since it had just been a year since he had teamed up with Brad Gilbert, a legend in his own right. But it was yet another year and yet another five-set match – against Gasquet at Wimbledon – before the Scot could find himself in the favourable spotlight; a feat which he has continued to sustain with much more aplomb in the four years since.