Deja vu for Murray as familiar ghosts reappear in Brisbane defeat

More frustration for Murray in another match where his physical limitations were exposed

It was a case of New Year, but same old story for Andy Murray, as he began 2024 with another loss from a winning position.
This was a sorry case of deja vu, as the former world No 1 failed to shake off the ghosts of last season. Three of his losses in the second half of 2023 came after winning the opening set, and the frustrating trend continued as he fell to Grigor Dimitrov 4-6, 7-5, 6-2.
Murray, 36, has openly said he did not enjoy last year – he won just two matches in his final five events of 2023 – and said ahead of his first match in Brisbane that he may consider retirement if things continue in the same vein in 2024.
This opener was a tough draw, against second seed and long-time rival Grigor Dimitrov. Murray led their head-to-head 8-4 but in their most recent match at the US Open last September he was comprehensively beaten in straight sets.
Whereas Murray’s 2023 ended miserably in terms of results, Dimitrov came into form in the autumn, when he reached the final of the Paris Masters with two top 10 wins and solidified his place in the top 20. He has been enjoying a resurgent run since he began working with Murray’s former coach Jamie Delgado in late 2022.
Watching from Dimitrov’s box on Monday in Brisbane, Delgado would have been far too familiar with Murray’s worrying pattern of starting strong but failing to close matches out.
The beginning of the match was tightly contested in short snappy rallies, but Murray drew first blood. Dimitrov was formidably solid on serve initially, losing just one point for the majority of the first set. But he crumbled when serving to stay in the opener, hitting four errors – including a double fault – to give Murray the 6-4 advantage.
That is cheeky 😎#BrisbaneTennis @andy_murray pic.twitter.com/bxLWINmScO
Murray fell off the pace midway through the second set though, as Dimitrov began extending the rallies and was winning the majority of them. When Dimitrov broke Murray with a well-timed drop shot to go 6-5 up, the Brit smacked the net with his racket in disgust and let out a flurry of expletives.
Despite Murray entertaining the crowd with a couple of his signature defensive lobs in the next game, Dimitrov would not let up – even hitting an overhead smash with broken strings – and he evened up the match.
The Bulgarian was well in control thereafter, storming to a 4-0 lead in the decider, but bizarrely had to switch out three more rackets with broken strings, something he later put down to the humidity.
That offered a small opportunity to disturb his rhythm and Murray finally drew a game back at 4-1 after losing four service games in a row. But Dimitrov’s lead was insurmountable and he clinched the match with an ace after two hours and 27 minutes.
Murray experienced similar losses to Taylor Fritz, Aslan Karatsev and Tomas Etcheverry in Washington, Zhuhai and Basel respectively from last July onwards, where he edged out a tight opening set but lost some of his intensity thereafter and allowed the matches to turn into brutal slogs. In September and October, he also blew opportunities to serve out matches against Alex de Minaur twice, including a soul-destroying choke in Paris where he led 5-2 in the deciding set.
His collection of smashed rackets at the end of that loss in Paris – his last of the season – were an indication of just how demoralising this pattern of play is becoming for Murray. What he has made clear is that he wants this season to go differently, as he only won seven matches after Wimbledon last July – not exactly the kind of results to spur on a man with a metal hip and injury-prone ageing body.
On Monday against Dimitrov he looked to be struggling physically late on, after admitting his off-season was not ideal as illness and a minor injury curtailed his preparations for Australia. He may need a bit of time to truly get going and one loss, against a higher-ranked opponent, is not a moment to panic. But the nature of the loss will ring alarm bells in Murray’s mind, as he attempts to give himself a chance of having a positive first month to the season, in what could potentially prove to be the last Australian swing of his career.