241 Pizza

Murray’s head needed to be cleared, and it was. A winning pass and he was screaming, “Come on” when we had heard nothing in a distinctly calm opener. When he chased a drop shot to fashion a whipped forehand winner, he followed that with a stunning backhand pass and Roddick’s forehand error meant that the American had dropped his serve to love when it had not even been remotely threatened in the opening set.

Murray was now in a better place, thumping down aces, holding service games without blemish, mastering proceedings. He duly pocketed the second set when a backhand service return from the American flew wildly from the frame.

And what was this? A masterly — well, almost masterly — start to the third set, too. Murray won the first three points on the Roddick serve, just as he had in the second. This time, however, the next one, the critical one, eluded him. Or rather, Roddick simply refused to cede ground. Murray netted with a attempted crosscourt backhand, a Roddick second serve leapt viciously into his body on the second and Roddick, venturing forward once more behind a sharp approach, nailed a backhand volley winner.

This time, Murray blinked. He was two break points down in the fourth game, the first of which he saved with an outrageous forehand lob over an opponent who was stretching as high as his 6ft 2in frame would allow, the next a backhand winner down the line, his metier. Still Roddick refused to go away; Murray nailed him with an ace. A fourth break point and this time, Murray erred on the forehand.

Then, as he had done a couple of times before in the match, Murray suddenly unleashed on the Roddick serve. Three points flew by, the third of which was a stunning crosscourt backhand that had Roddick plunging to the turf in a vain attempt to retrieve it. A break back! A tie-break. From 4-5 in that, Murray served a couple of aces to fashion a mini-break, a rally ensued, the like of which you would count on the Scot to win nine times from ten, but Roddick, bravely venturing up the court, stuck out a racket hand, the ball spun awkwardly off the strings and died on the turf.

It was enough for Roddick to sense his chance, a backhand slice of devilish depth and a forehand netted meant a fourth and ultimately deciding set was upon us.