Novak Djokovic beat Andy Murray 6-1, 7-6(4) in the Miami final, 2012 on hard court
It was Djokovic’s 11th Masters title and the first time he had defended one. He’d recently won the Australian Open, beating Murray in 5 sets in the semis along the way. The two had previously met in the ‘09 final (Murray won) and would go onto meet in the ‘15 final (Djokovic would win)
Djokovic won 86 points, Murray 70
Serve Stats
Djokovic...
- 1st serve percentage (46/71) 65%
- 1st serve points won (34/46) 74%
- 2nd serve points won (16/25) 64%
- Aces 5
- Double Faults 1
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (22/71) 31%
Murray...
- 1st serve percentage (47/85) 55%
- 1st serve points won (29/47) 62%
- 2nd serve points won (20/38) 53%
- Aces 4 (1 not clean), Service Winners 2
- Double Faults 3
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (17/85) 20%
Serve Patterns
Djokovic served...
- to FH 54%
- to BH 39%
- to Body 7%
Murray served...
- to FH 37%
- to BH 55%
- to Body 9%
Return Stats
Djokovic made...
- 65 (26 FH, 39 BH), including 2 runaround FHs & 1 runaround BH
- 11 Errors, comprising...
- 2 Unforced (2 FH)
- 9 Forced (4 FH, 5 BH)
- Return Rate (65/82) 79%
Murray made...
- 48 (26 FH, 22 BH)
- 17 Errors, comprising...
- 8 Unforced (3 FH, 5 BH)
- 9 Forced (4 FH, 5 BH)
- Return Rate (48/70) 69%
Break Points
Djokovic 2/8 (5 games)
Murray 0/1
Winners (including returns, excluding serves)
Djokovic 11 (5 FH, 3 BH, 3 FHV)
Murray 9 (3 FH, 5 BH, 1 OH)
Djokovic's FHs - 1 cc, 2 inside-out, 1 inside-in/cc and 1 lob at net
- BHs - 1 cc, 1 cc/longline and 1 drop shot
- 2 FHVs were swinging shots (1 non-net)
Murray's FHs - 2 inside-out and 1 inside-in
- BHs - 1 cc pass (a net chord pop over), 2 dtl (1 pass), 1 drop shot and 1 lob
Errors (excluding serves and returns)
Djokovic 43
- 39 Unforced (19 FH, 19 BH, 1 OH)
- 4 Forced (2 FH, 1 BH, 1 BHV)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 46.9
Murray 50
- 39 Unforced (17 FH, 19 BH, 2 FHV, 1 BHV)... with 1 baseline FHV
- 11 Forced (4 FH, 7 BH)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 43.8
(Note 1: All 1/2 volleys refer to such shots played at net. 1/2 volleys played from other parts of the court are included within relevant groundstroke numbers)
(Note 2: the Unforced Error Forcefulness Index is an indicator of how aggressive the average UE was. The numbers presented are keyed on 4 categories - 20 defensive, 40 neutral, 50 attacking and 60 winner attempt)
Net Points & Serve-Volley
Djokovic was...
- 8/14 (57%) at net, with...
- 0/1 forced back
Murray was...
- 3/6 (50%) at net, with...
- 1/1 forced back
Match Report
Djokovic serves and returns a little better to come out ahead, while being slightly less passive in play in a particularly bland baseline match on a slow-ish court
Djokovic-Murray matches are renowned for unenterprising action. Even by that standard, this encounter is pushing the envelope. Possibly the driest match even these two have put together and down their with the dullest Masters finals ever seen
Both players stay on the baseline and trade dual winged groundies. Neutral groundies. At most, firmly struck and usually a touch lighter than that. Blunt cc angles. Longline change-ups around the middle of the court. And they keep at it until someone blinks up the error. Play is almost perfectly distributed across wings
So playing, error rates are almost literally identical (both have 39 UEs apiece). As for taking initiative (let alone attacking), there’s little of it going on. Djokovic rarely steps up a little bit, particularly in first set to overpower and usually comes in to finish at such times. Its rare for either player to hit a particularly powerful shot to attempt to push the other back and even rarer for an attackingly wide shot
No significant difference in court position. Both stay couple paces behind baseline. Again, Djoko very rarely steps in a little bit to hit a bit harder, usually set up by the serve or the return. Still more rare is the odd attacking dtl BH by Djoko
Rallies aren’t short and play isn’t sloppy. The giant lot of UEs - 78 points end with UEs, 35 to winners or FEs - usually aren’t easy in coming. Both move well to defend and neutralize mild to moderate wide shots. Short balls are rare. In short, no obvious openings to attack. Not that either player appears to be looking for such openings, let alone trying to create them
With play near enough even, Djoko has better of both sets on back of serving and returning better. Not only does Murray serve at low 55% in, he’s not even serving heavily. Bulk of his first serves are just routine returns for Djoko. And the low in-count isn’t due to missing big serving - he’s missing those same, routine in-swing zone first serves
Djoko serves at 65% by contrast and finds his best serves when he needs them
On the return, Djoko misses almost nothing and same can’t be said for Murray. Djoko has just 2 return UEs, Murray 8. Both of have 9 FEs and unreturnables are near equal (Djoko 5, Murray 6)
What it comes to is Djoko leading unreturned rates 31% to 20%. Djoko’s figure is high for a slowish court and against Andy Murray, whose quite capable of keeping the calibre serving Djoko dishes out down to around 20% on quicker courts. That’s main difference - Djoko with substantial serve-return complex advantage, and he has it on both sides of that game
And action?
- Winners - Djoko 11, Murray 9
- Errors forced - Djoko 11, Murray 4
- UEs - both 39
Poor figures. Pretty normal for the pair. Helped by both moving, defending and counter-punching well enough to keep rallies neutral and resist any attempts to liven things up (and not much attempt to liven things up to begin with)
“Interestingly”, UEs are very even across shots -
- Murray FH 17
- other 3 shots 19
… and you can throw in a silly attempt by Murray to FHV a ball from the baseline as a virtual FH UE too
Djoko being more proactive comes through more in the UE breakdown than the winners and errors forced figures -
- Neutral UEs - Djoko 20, Murray 28
- Attacking UEs - Djoko 11, Murray 7
- Winner Attempt UEs - Djoko 8, Murray 4
With so many attacking and and winner attempt errors relative to errors forced and winners, at least you can see why the 2 stay in neutral. Neither are successful enough when stepping up to make it worth there while
So they go back for like a pendulum from the back, blinking about the same rate - and Djoko has substantial advantage on serve and return to push himself ahead
Match Progression
It takes awhile for action to settle into the doldrums. Perfect BH lob winner by Murray in opening game and Djoko answers a couple games later with a net-to-net FH lob one. Djoko’s FH gives up the errors early on
Break comes in game 4, where 4 points in a row end forcefully - Djoko forcing BH errors with a powerful shot out of the blue and a deep return, followed by FH cc winner to finish a fine rally that he constructs superbly and Murray making a running BH dtl pass winner. Back to back unreturnable serves from Murray awhile later. The game lasts 16 points, eventually ending with Djoko overpowering Murray and a not very good smash being good enough to force error
Djoko consolidates break in 10 point game where he faces break point for only time, that he saves via a third ball, swinging non-net FHV winner set up by a good serve. Breaks in a 10 point game to follow up before serving out to 15 in a well served game
Pretty good set from Djoko, stepping in to attack and overpower on occasion with a few damaging returns thrown in, along with solid serving. Murray does almost nothing. He’s got 3 winners and forces 0 errors in the set
Play becomes more passive in second set, with Djoko dropping the odd moments of attacking and Murray evening up consistency from the back that he’d trailed in earlier. In one sense play ‘livens up’. While UEs continue to dominate, higher proportion of them go long whereas in first set, most had been into the net
No breaks but Djoko has better of things. He serves 45 points to Murray’s 54 in the set and has break points in 3 games to Murray’s 0. 3 other games go to deuce (2 on Djoko’s serve) and with not short rallies, its a struggle
Tiebreak is pretty good. Better than rest of match (which isn’t necessarily saying much). A superb rally ends with Murray hitting a running slice BH drop shot that probably wasn’t intentional, but he double faults right after to fall behind 2-3
That mini turns out to be enough to win. Djoko aggressively wins his service points - one of his best aces and 2 third ball FH winners that weren’t obvious shot choice. Even Murray wins his remaining service points aggressively (mildly forcing a FH error and a strong unreturned serve). Match appropriately ends with a who-blinks-first rally, and its Murray that misses a neutral line FH
Summing up, dull match where Djokovic serving ably well and returning consummately to Murray's below par serving of both force and of percentage and missing a few returns is biggest difference between the two players. Of court action, both are passive from the baseline as they trade routine groundstrokes until someone misses - and they miss about the same amount, after long-ish rallies. Djokovic is slightly more attacking
It was Djokovic’s 11th Masters title and the first time he had defended one. He’d recently won the Australian Open, beating Murray in 5 sets in the semis along the way. The two had previously met in the ‘09 final (Murray won) and would go onto meet in the ‘15 final (Djokovic would win)
Djokovic won 86 points, Murray 70
Serve Stats
Djokovic...
- 1st serve percentage (46/71) 65%
- 1st serve points won (34/46) 74%
- 2nd serve points won (16/25) 64%
- Aces 5
- Double Faults 1
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (22/71) 31%
Murray...
- 1st serve percentage (47/85) 55%
- 1st serve points won (29/47) 62%
- 2nd serve points won (20/38) 53%
- Aces 4 (1 not clean), Service Winners 2
- Double Faults 3
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (17/85) 20%
Serve Patterns
Djokovic served...
- to FH 54%
- to BH 39%
- to Body 7%
Murray served...
- to FH 37%
- to BH 55%
- to Body 9%
Return Stats
Djokovic made...
- 65 (26 FH, 39 BH), including 2 runaround FHs & 1 runaround BH
- 11 Errors, comprising...
- 2 Unforced (2 FH)
- 9 Forced (4 FH, 5 BH)
- Return Rate (65/82) 79%
Murray made...
- 48 (26 FH, 22 BH)
- 17 Errors, comprising...
- 8 Unforced (3 FH, 5 BH)
- 9 Forced (4 FH, 5 BH)
- Return Rate (48/70) 69%
Break Points
Djokovic 2/8 (5 games)
Murray 0/1
Winners (including returns, excluding serves)
Djokovic 11 (5 FH, 3 BH, 3 FHV)
Murray 9 (3 FH, 5 BH, 1 OH)
Djokovic's FHs - 1 cc, 2 inside-out, 1 inside-in/cc and 1 lob at net
- BHs - 1 cc, 1 cc/longline and 1 drop shot
- 2 FHVs were swinging shots (1 non-net)
Murray's FHs - 2 inside-out and 1 inside-in
- BHs - 1 cc pass (a net chord pop over), 2 dtl (1 pass), 1 drop shot and 1 lob
Errors (excluding serves and returns)
Djokovic 43
- 39 Unforced (19 FH, 19 BH, 1 OH)
- 4 Forced (2 FH, 1 BH, 1 BHV)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 46.9
Murray 50
- 39 Unforced (17 FH, 19 BH, 2 FHV, 1 BHV)... with 1 baseline FHV
- 11 Forced (4 FH, 7 BH)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 43.8
(Note 1: All 1/2 volleys refer to such shots played at net. 1/2 volleys played from other parts of the court are included within relevant groundstroke numbers)
(Note 2: the Unforced Error Forcefulness Index is an indicator of how aggressive the average UE was. The numbers presented are keyed on 4 categories - 20 defensive, 40 neutral, 50 attacking and 60 winner attempt)
Net Points & Serve-Volley
Djokovic was...
- 8/14 (57%) at net, with...
- 0/1 forced back
Murray was...
- 3/6 (50%) at net, with...
- 1/1 forced back
Match Report
Djokovic serves and returns a little better to come out ahead, while being slightly less passive in play in a particularly bland baseline match on a slow-ish court
Djokovic-Murray matches are renowned for unenterprising action. Even by that standard, this encounter is pushing the envelope. Possibly the driest match even these two have put together and down their with the dullest Masters finals ever seen
Both players stay on the baseline and trade dual winged groundies. Neutral groundies. At most, firmly struck and usually a touch lighter than that. Blunt cc angles. Longline change-ups around the middle of the court. And they keep at it until someone blinks up the error. Play is almost perfectly distributed across wings
So playing, error rates are almost literally identical (both have 39 UEs apiece). As for taking initiative (let alone attacking), there’s little of it going on. Djokovic rarely steps up a little bit, particularly in first set to overpower and usually comes in to finish at such times. Its rare for either player to hit a particularly powerful shot to attempt to push the other back and even rarer for an attackingly wide shot
No significant difference in court position. Both stay couple paces behind baseline. Again, Djoko very rarely steps in a little bit to hit a bit harder, usually set up by the serve or the return. Still more rare is the odd attacking dtl BH by Djoko
Rallies aren’t short and play isn’t sloppy. The giant lot of UEs - 78 points end with UEs, 35 to winners or FEs - usually aren’t easy in coming. Both move well to defend and neutralize mild to moderate wide shots. Short balls are rare. In short, no obvious openings to attack. Not that either player appears to be looking for such openings, let alone trying to create them
With play near enough even, Djoko has better of both sets on back of serving and returning better. Not only does Murray serve at low 55% in, he’s not even serving heavily. Bulk of his first serves are just routine returns for Djoko. And the low in-count isn’t due to missing big serving - he’s missing those same, routine in-swing zone first serves
Djoko serves at 65% by contrast and finds his best serves when he needs them
On the return, Djoko misses almost nothing and same can’t be said for Murray. Djoko has just 2 return UEs, Murray 8. Both of have 9 FEs and unreturnables are near equal (Djoko 5, Murray 6)
What it comes to is Djoko leading unreturned rates 31% to 20%. Djoko’s figure is high for a slowish court and against Andy Murray, whose quite capable of keeping the calibre serving Djoko dishes out down to around 20% on quicker courts. That’s main difference - Djoko with substantial serve-return complex advantage, and he has it on both sides of that game
And action?
- Winners - Djoko 11, Murray 9
- Errors forced - Djoko 11, Murray 4
- UEs - both 39
Poor figures. Pretty normal for the pair. Helped by both moving, defending and counter-punching well enough to keep rallies neutral and resist any attempts to liven things up (and not much attempt to liven things up to begin with)
“Interestingly”, UEs are very even across shots -
- Murray FH 17
- other 3 shots 19
… and you can throw in a silly attempt by Murray to FHV a ball from the baseline as a virtual FH UE too
Djoko being more proactive comes through more in the UE breakdown than the winners and errors forced figures -
- Neutral UEs - Djoko 20, Murray 28
- Attacking UEs - Djoko 11, Murray 7
- Winner Attempt UEs - Djoko 8, Murray 4
With so many attacking and and winner attempt errors relative to errors forced and winners, at least you can see why the 2 stay in neutral. Neither are successful enough when stepping up to make it worth there while
So they go back for like a pendulum from the back, blinking about the same rate - and Djoko has substantial advantage on serve and return to push himself ahead
Match Progression
It takes awhile for action to settle into the doldrums. Perfect BH lob winner by Murray in opening game and Djoko answers a couple games later with a net-to-net FH lob one. Djoko’s FH gives up the errors early on
Break comes in game 4, where 4 points in a row end forcefully - Djoko forcing BH errors with a powerful shot out of the blue and a deep return, followed by FH cc winner to finish a fine rally that he constructs superbly and Murray making a running BH dtl pass winner. Back to back unreturnable serves from Murray awhile later. The game lasts 16 points, eventually ending with Djoko overpowering Murray and a not very good smash being good enough to force error
Djoko consolidates break in 10 point game where he faces break point for only time, that he saves via a third ball, swinging non-net FHV winner set up by a good serve. Breaks in a 10 point game to follow up before serving out to 15 in a well served game
Pretty good set from Djoko, stepping in to attack and overpower on occasion with a few damaging returns thrown in, along with solid serving. Murray does almost nothing. He’s got 3 winners and forces 0 errors in the set
Play becomes more passive in second set, with Djoko dropping the odd moments of attacking and Murray evening up consistency from the back that he’d trailed in earlier. In one sense play ‘livens up’. While UEs continue to dominate, higher proportion of them go long whereas in first set, most had been into the net
No breaks but Djoko has better of things. He serves 45 points to Murray’s 54 in the set and has break points in 3 games to Murray’s 0. 3 other games go to deuce (2 on Djoko’s serve) and with not short rallies, its a struggle
Tiebreak is pretty good. Better than rest of match (which isn’t necessarily saying much). A superb rally ends with Murray hitting a running slice BH drop shot that probably wasn’t intentional, but he double faults right after to fall behind 2-3
That mini turns out to be enough to win. Djoko aggressively wins his service points - one of his best aces and 2 third ball FH winners that weren’t obvious shot choice. Even Murray wins his remaining service points aggressively (mildly forcing a FH error and a strong unreturned serve). Match appropriately ends with a who-blinks-first rally, and its Murray that misses a neutral line FH
Summing up, dull match where Djokovic serving ably well and returning consummately to Murray's below par serving of both force and of percentage and missing a few returns is biggest difference between the two players. Of court action, both are passive from the baseline as they trade routine groundstrokes until someone misses - and they miss about the same amount, after long-ish rallies. Djokovic is slightly more attacking
