A bridge too Ferr
Published: Today at 19:39
ANDY MURRAY ran into a Spanish brick wall called David Ferrer last night and crashed out of the French Open.
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The Brit’s Grand Slam dream was wrecked again as Ferrer ground him down 6-4 6-7 6-3 6-2 to set up a semi-final with Rafa Nadal.
Fourth seed Murray, 25, had his chances but failed to cash in after each of the FIVE times he broke Ferrer’s serve.
That was the stat which sends him home on Eurostar this morning assessing a performance that failed to test the world No 6.
Murray admitted: “Coming into the event I thought there was no reason to play unless I thought I had a shot at winning.
“It’s a surface I’m going to need to improve on a lot if I want to win the event. But you must play your best tennis to do that — and in this match I didn’t.
“He is so solid, so consistent. If you’re not converting your opportunities, it turns into many long games and then the pressure can build on your serve.
“He broke me a lot of times in the last couple of sets. I had chances to break him and didn’t convert them like he did.”
Even so, getting this far was an achievement for the Dunblane Dynamo after looking almost crippled by a back spasm in the second round.
And with the green, green grass of home calling, Murray can leave the French capital not totally dispirited.
But the red clay of Paris remains his least favourite surface.
He said: “I’m not really, really disappointed. It was a decent tournament.
"Coming in, I didn’t feel as good as last year. But after the match in the second round, it was good to get into this position.
“I was playing good tennis towards the end but just made a few more mistakes than I would have liked.”
Murray started the quarter-final like a train, but Ferrer, 30, is not known as the ‘Little Beast’ for nothing.
The Spaniard has a knack of getting back almost every ball and broke for 3-1.
Murray then wasted four break points to allow Ferrer to go 5-2 up and though the Scot broke for 5-4, he instantly lost his serve and the first set.
It was a constant theme and it was clearly playing with Murray’s mind as his wild swearing and ranting resurfaced.
He took the second set to a tie-break and nicked it 7-3. Suddenly momentum — but then came rain and a half-hour delay.
The sun finally came out but gloom engulfed Murray’s game as a break gifted Ferrer the third set and another dropped service game early gave Ferrer a 3-1 lead in the fourth.
At 4-2 and with the light fading Murray had two break points — but again fluffed it. And when his faltering serve went again, the game was up.
Despite his back problem, Murray will not pull out of the pre-Wimbledon Queen’s tournament beginning on Monday.
He said: “I’ll do what’s best for my preparation for Wimbledon, back or not.”
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