Andy Murray, who played so well for six matches of the 2015 Australian Open, leaves Melbourne a beaten finalist here for the fourth time and accused of choking while his conqueror, Novak Djokovic, had to fend off accusations of gamesmanship.
Murray resisted the invitation to criticise the Serb, who at least twice recovered with remarkable swiftness from physical dips in a tough four-setter to win his fifth title in five finals here, three of them against the Scot.
While taking 12 of the last 13 games on the way to winning 7-6, 6-7, 6-3, 6-0 in three hours and 39 minutes ought to remove any doubt about the legitimacy of Djokovic’s victory, after running repairs to a thumb injury in the first set, the world No1 was hobbling at the start of the second, and again in the third, raising suspicions that he was play-acting.
“The third set was frustrating,” said Murray, who was heard to say on court: “He always does that.”
He said later: “He fell on the ground after a couple of shots. It appeared that he was cramping and I let that distract me a little bit. He was moving unbelievable at the end of the third set, sliding and chasing everything down.”
Djokovic said afterwards: “No, I wasn’t cramping. I was just weak. I went through the physical crisis in a matter of 20 minutes. I didn’t feel that too many times in my career. I didn’t want to give up. I started hitting the ball more, covering the court better, shortening the points, and allowed myself to come back into the match.”
Murray’s coach, Amélie Mauresmo, said of Djokovic: “His game goes up and down – from unbelievable to less good. Sometimes you see there is space but then he closes the door. He is improving. He is adding stuff to his game.”
She took heart from Murray’s overall performance in the tournament. “[These were] two really good weeks compared to the end of last year. He has succeeded in finding his level of play. To beat a Novak Djokovic, who is superb? It is not yet enough. We have already made important progress – the little things are still to be worked on. He gave his best.”
However, Mauresmo did not think Djokovic’s apparent injury problems distracted Murray. “No, I don’t think so. I didn’t see that.”
The 1987 Wimbledon champion Pat Cash, meanwhile, was brutal in his assessment of Murray’s collapse at the end, when he was broken easily three times and hit nine unforced errors.
“He hasn’t put up a great fight,” Cash said on Radio 5 Live. “He absolutely collapsed. Sorry, but you don’t put a rose tint on this. He melted down.
“The bottom line is, the situation got too much. He has to look at it and say: ‘I can’t do this again. What did I do wrong?’ And it’s the same stuff that’s happened his whole career. He needs to find the right balance between attack and defence. He’ll be sat there thinking: ‘What happened, what did I do? I’m a disgrace, I’ve let everyone down.’
“He’s a seriously good player but, if he wants to be a great player, then he has to fix this element. He has to have a good hard look in the mirror and he’s needed to have a good hard look in the mirror for a long time.”
At least Murray leaves Melbourne smiling – and he has his fiancee, Kim Sears, to thank for that.
Sears, slaughtered in sections of the media for swearing under her breath at Tomas Berdych during Murray’s semi-final win over the Czech on Thursday night, had the cameras clicking again when she arrived in the team’s box wearing a T-shirt bearing an unequivocal message for her critics: Parental Advisory: Explicit Content.
“I saw that she bought it [on Saturday] when she went out shopping,” Murray said. “She said she walked past it and had to buy it. But I didn’t know if she was going to wear the shirt [to the final]. She wasn’t wearing it when I left the hotel. It was a funny shirt.”