Murray vs Berdych - the saga of the 'soft balls'
We knew on paper this was going to be a match more than a manslaughter of Roddick yesterday - however, it really depended on which Murray or which Berdych decided to bring themselves to court central.
And it seemed that we were gifted with both Murray and Berdych in fine form, the match itself turned into an epic. Maybe the end winner might have been different if Murray never made the clockwork shot into an error in the tiebreak, or more painfully double faulted in 4-4 in the final. However, I want to focus more on what became the most prominent part of the match - the tennis balls that became more interesting than the match itself at times.
With the joy of Sky+ and a subscription to Sky Sports just to cover the tournaments in November, I thought I would give the guys who were not in the know a chance to be in the know by re-watching and dissecting what happened.
A couple of times, Berdych had been swapping the balls that were currently in play when serving, maybe he was just being fussy like Wawrinka or Nadal but obviously something more frustrating was apparent.
However as far as I'm aware, it all started in the third set at 2-1. Berdych serving.
First couple of points in his service game and Berdych starts to get more frustrated, bringing up two break points for Murray. 15-40.
Umpire Fergus Murphy asks, "Tomas, what's wrong with them?"
After being given new balls, and obviously exchanging them a couple of times...
"I just wanted to compare to these"
Berdych slaps in a 1st serve ending the point in an overhead. Fist pump. 30-40.
Umpire: "You think they're soft or you think they're all the same?" -balls replaced with new, again - Berdych wins a length rally on a Murray error and he walks up to the chair. Break points have come and gone. 40-40.
What Murray says is inaudible but the umpire replies "Well, its a reasonable request Andy" - "Bolloc*s" - this is again repeated again for good measure at the baseline - this results in code violation, Murray puts back on his pokerface.
Chance to break disappears. 2-2. Murray serving. Speeds through his service game with the same balls. Back to the change of ends. Ah, the joy of adverts from Sky Sports.
Coverage is back and this is now where the discussion gets interesting. See video.
"I don't know how you can say it's a reasonable request - the balls were absolutely fine."
"See now you have a different point - at the beginning you were asking why is he changing, that is a reasonable request.
"But you're not even asking me if the balls were soft - you were just putting brand new balls in without asking.@
"Andy you know in the past I've seen enough matches and you've played enough matches to know guys don't usually play with tennis balls" (?! - I'm sure I got that last line wrong)
But make of it what you will.
Commentator "It's very unclear really exactly what Murray's complaint is and what the umpire said there .... but basically it's to do with the quality of the tennis balls and how Berdych said something to the umpire in his last service game he had and got some balls changed and Murray wasn't made fully aware of the situation and clearly feels the wrong things were done - or he wasn't given the right information"
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