This article is part of our New York Classics series, a special characteristic produced by The Atlético Looking back in the classic American open performances, iconic athletes and timeless moments.
Flushing, NY – The final of the men of the US Open 2012 between Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray was strange and consistent.
Murray ended the 76 -year wait for his country for a male Grand Slam champion by winning the longest joint final in the history of the tournament. It was played in the bursts and rotating consequences of a tornado who had crossed the queens, which forced the game to play a Monday instead of a Sunday.
When he finished, Murray raised his first important title after losing his first four Grand Slam finals. The game was so up and down that it was not clear how it could go to the end, typified by a 54 -shooting rally played in a hostile wind that had defined the games of both players on their way to the final. During Murray’s semifinal against Czech player Tomáš Berdych, the wind flew a chair on the court for a point and removed his head from his head during another; The Djokovic semifinal against David Ferrer of Spain was abandoned due to a tornado warning. He did not resume until the second Sunday of the tournament, pushing the final return to Monday.
“It never happened to me or not I think of any other player,” Djokovic said about the warning of tornadoes at a press conference at the US Open this year.
“I just remember that year it was super, super wind and difficult to play in general for anyone.”
The rivalry between Murray and Djokovic defined the atmosphere as much as the wind. Born with a week apart, they first played when they were 11. In September 2012, both were 25 years old. Djokovic was the number 1 in the world and had five major in their name; Murray was the number 4 in the world and had won a set in his four Grand Slam finals, one of which had been a direct blow to Djokovic.
Murray’s closeness was becoming a national obsession, since Great Britain desperately expected a first male Grand Slam champion from Fred Perry in 1936. While the United States Open rolled, the memories of Murray’s closest defeat to date were fresh in the mind of the nation. After losing in the final against Roger Federer, he had won many hearts and minds with an emotional speech after the game. Some of the British audiences still perceived Murray as Dour and Moody, but they were increasingly dragged into this convincing story of a deadly tennis doing everything that is in their power to overcome the three demigods of Federer, Rafael Nadal and Djokovic.
Murray had injected some self -confidence just before New York by beating Federer on the central court of Wimbledon in the 2012 Olympic final, but his rivalry with Djokovic was deeper than winning his first specialty.
Brad Gilbert, who trained Andre Agassi, Andy Roddick and Coco Coff for the open titles of the United States. Uu. And worked with the Scottish in 2006, remember that Murray was clear about his man to win.
“I asked about all these players, and he looked at me,” Gilbert said in a telephone interview this week. “When I mentioned Djokovic, he said: ‘Nothing more matters. That is the guy’. And that even included Federer and Nadal, who were already there.”
For 2012, Murray’s coach was Ivan Lendl. Like Murray, Lendl lost his first four Grand Slam finals, and his meaningless style adapted to discernment, sometimes contrary Murray. Before his semifinal of the Australian Open against Djokovic that January, Lendl told Murray: “You will win, but you will have to pass a lot of pain to get there, so get ready for that.”
Murray really lost a marathon of about five hours 7-5 in the fifth set, but the prediction of Lendl summarized strangely in the final of the US Open. Uu. That Murray won eight months later. “A lot of pain” is not yet closer to how unbearable victory would be 7-6 (10), 7-5, 2-6, 3-6, 6-2 over Djokovic.
Despite Lendl and the Olympic victory, Murray’s main record left him questioning himself in the final. “I still doubted until a few minutes before playing the game,” he said at his press conference after the game.
“You are thinking, ‘Are you going to be able to do this?’ … The games against him are always going to hurt.
Murray, who was not available for the interview for this story, told some reporters in 2022: “I remember being in the locker room on my own and feeling incredibly nervous and feeling a lot alone and feeling a lot of pressure.”
Others were more optimistic. “It’s fun, I really felt that I was going to win,” said Annabel Croft, former British No. 1 who was covering the game for Sky Sports, in an interview last week.
Something felt a bit different about this final in the early stages. Murray quickly settled, breaking in the first game, but then Djokovic immediately broke it. It was time to attack: Murray’s games tended to be heartbreaking, and it seemed that he was going that way, even when Murray coincided mainly with the world’s number 1 shot to shoot, playing a 54 -shooting rally in the sixth game.
Given the wind, the tennis level was extraordinary. Murray and Djokovic were at the forefront of tennis in 2012, which at that time was a game of cunning baseline and implacable tests of the gunmen of others. As the game progressed, and the physicality of the players began to fray, there were more cats of cat and mouse on the front of the court, with fallen shots, they rush the network and increasingly absurd angles.
Such set ended as it was always intended to do: with a 24 -minute tiebreaker, longer than the legendary John Mcenroe vs. Björn Borg one of the 1980 Wimbledon final, but with 22 points played compared to 34. The Seteline was 12-10 in the favor of Murray, since he won a succession of the basal rallies of 30 shots and became his sixth set. His roar of “come” was so strong that he could have heard in Manhattan.
In a flash of clairvoyance, Murray’s coach Mark Petchey said in the air that he was “unthinkable, we will have to see four other sets of this”, and the second was equally dramatic. Murray climbed 4-0 before being held at 5-5, but stole two games in a row to take an advantage of two sets. As throughout his career, the 24 times Grand Slam Djokovic champion was fighting with the wind.
“Two sides of the Court with two different conditions,” he said at a press conference later. “Playing for the wind and against the wind is a great advantage or disadvantage.
“We had to make a lot of improvisation. We had to try to stay there and stay focused and be in balance, and the wind was doing everything possible to keep us out of balance.”
A victory in the straight sets felt too good to be true, for Murray and for the British public watching at home where midnight was approaching. Djokovic recovered properly to take the next two sets.
Jonathan Overend had been BBC’s tennis correspondent since 2003. He had been there for each Murray near the lady and now found himself commenting for the Nation about what seemed to be the most painful of all. “Transmitting from somewhere back to the United Kingdom, you are always working in the British era,” he said in an interview this week.
“So we are around 1:30 am when Djokovic level the game. At that time, I receive so many messages saying: ‘Well, going out now, talk in the morning, what shame for Murray, five sets Djokovic’. There was only a feeling of inevitability.”
Murray suspects that if he had not abandoned the court for a bathroom before the fifth set, he would have lost. He took a cubicle near the entrance of the players to Arthur Ashe Stadium. “It’s small, not much more than a toilet, a sink and a mirror. I was thinking: ‘Why are I still losing these finals?
Andy Murray’s Open Final against Novak Djokovic is the longest in the history of the tournament. (Elsa / Getty Images)
“Then I started talking. Out loud.
Murray immediately broke at the beginning of the fifth set, which both players said it was crucial later, and then broke again 3-0. He lost one of the breaks, but made him again in a position to serve for the 5-2 match. Djokovic called Calambres coach, which adds to drama and suspense. After a delay he spent on practicing the services, Murray had three championship points with 40-0, and when Djokovic sent a right blow in the second, he was a Grand Slam champion finally. He had done it in the difficult way, finally keeping a player as durable as a tennis terminator.
It was such an emotional victory that it was even said that some journalists cried in the press seats. “That was the moment when my voice broke, that, I didn’t wimbledon the following year,” said Overend.
“I will always remember 2012 for the final game. We are right at the top of Arthur Ashe Stadium, so behind the back row of spectators. Every spectator I could see stood up. The game still goes, but they know that he will do it. I remember having said on the radio ‘,’Well, they could stand up because this is going to do this. ‘”
“Andy’s unique is that he had this incredible ability to win games,” said Gilbert. “And you looked at the statistics, such as, how are you doing it? ‘ I knew how to win.
Murray, stunned immediately after the victory, regretted trying to find the sponsor’s clock in his bag. Sean Connery and Sir Alex Ferguson congratulate him, who had reduced his press conference a couple of days before.
“I am thinking a lot at this time,” he said in which after victory. “I am thinking a lot about many different things. It’s hard to explain. It has been a long and long trip. I don’t know if it’s disbelief or whatever. I’m very happy inside; I’m sorry if I’m not showing it as you want.”
In excess, hoping to interview Murray, he saw Lendl, famous inexpressive, to give his player a quick hug before disappearing, apparently at night. Overend called his congratulations to the coach who left, who replied: “It wasn’t me.”
(Illustration: Demetrius Robinson / The Atlético / Darron Cummings, Cameron Spencer, Stan Honda / Getty Images;
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