Andy Murray beat Roger Federer 6-3, 4-6, 6-1 in the Indian Wells semi-final, 2009 on hard court
Murray would go onto lose the final to Rafael Nadal. Federer had recently been runner-up at the Australian Open
Murray won 86 points, Federer 70
Serve Stats
Murray...
- 1st serve percentage (49/82) 60%
- 1st serve points won (35/49) 71%
- 2nd serve points won (19/33) 58%
- Aces 7 (1 not clean)
- Double Faults 3
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (27/82) 33%
Federer...
- 1st serve percentage (42/74) 57%
- 1st serve points won (27/42) 64%
- 2nd serve points won (15/32) 47%
- Aces 3
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (13/74) 18%
Serve Patterns
Murray served...
- to FH 34%
- to BH 66%
Federer served...
- to FH 45%
- to BH 45%
- to Body 11%
Return Stats
Murray made...
- 61 (31 FH, 30 BH)
- 10 Errors, comprising...
- 4 Unforced (4 BH)
- 6 Forced (3 FH, 3 BH)
- Return Rate (61/74) 82%
Federer made...
- 52 (21 FH, 31 BH), including 2 runaround FHs & 3 return-approaches
- 3 (3 FH), including 1 runaround FH
- 20 Errors, comprising...
- 10 Unforced (3 FH, 7 BH), including 1 runaround FH
- 10 Forced ( FH, BH)
- Return Rate (52/79) 66%
Break Points
Murray 5/6 (5 games)
Federer 2/10 (4 games)
Winners (excluding serves, including returns)
Murray 11 (6 FH, 5 BH)
Federer 28 (13 FH, 5 BH, 2 FHV, 3 BHV, 5 OH)
Murray's FHs - 3 cc passes (1 net chord flicker), 1 dtl pass, 1 inside-in and 1 longline
- BHs - 2 cc passes, 1 inside-out pass, 1 lob and 1 drop shot
Federer's FHs - 2 cc (1 return), 1 cc/inside-in, 1 dtl, 4 inside-out (1 return) and 5 inside-in (1 runaround return)
- BHs - 4 dtl (1 slice at net) and 1 drop shot at net
- 2 from serve-volley points (1 FHV, 1 BHV), both first volleys
- 4 OHs were on the bounce - 1 from baseline, 1 from no-man's land, 1 from close to service line that's been counted a net point
Errors (excluding serves and returns)
Murray 26
- 15 Unforced (8 FH, 7 BH)
- 11 Forced (6 FH, 5 BH)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 45.3
Federer 48
- 44 Unforced (17 FH, 25 BH, 1 FHV, 1 OH)... with 1 BH at net & 1 BH running-down-drop-shot at net
- 4 Forced (2 FH, 2 BH)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 47.0
(Note 1: all half-volleys refer to such shots played at net. Half -volleys played from other parts of the court are included within relevant groundstroke counts)
(Note 2: the Unforced Error Forcefulness Index is an indicator of how aggressive the average UE was. The numbers presented for these two matches are keyed on 4 categories - 20 defensive, 40 neutral, 50 attacking and 60 winner attempt)
Net Points & Serve-Volley
Murray was...
- 3/5 (60%) at net, with...
- 1/1 retreated
Federer was...
- 24/36 (67%) at net, including...
- 4/7 (57%) serve-volleying, comprising...
- 3/4 (75%) off 1st serve and...
- 1/3 (33%) off 2nd serve
---
- 2/3 (67%) return-approaching
- 2/2 forced back/retreated
Match Report
Federer attacks well from front and back. Federer routinely misses routine BHs. Murray watches from other end. Court is slow. QED
Murray does a little bit more than watch from the other end, but basically, that's it
Murray -
a) returns everything. Keeps Fed to just 3 aces (he has 7) and very low 18% unreturned rate. Not just high return rate, but reasonably neutralizing returns against the first serve and Fed wins just 64% first serve points, despite attacking well
This is common feature of the match-up, regardless of result. Murray always returns Federer well and in this very way; keeping to a minimimum both Fed's freebies and easy third ball attacking options
b) hits everything to Fed's BH. BHs go cc and FHs go longline. Not hard. Normal depth. Not pressuring. Not with mixed up paces or spin. Just routine, neutral BH cc's
And Fed blinks. 25 BH UEs for Fed. Putting that in perspective -
- Murray has 15 UEs and 26 errors total
- Fed has 19 non-BH UEs and 23 errors (sans BH UEs)
c) some good passing from Murray against a very sharp at net Fed. Fed's excellent in forecourt - quick to come in, sure on the volley, good of placement and in following-up to cover the net. It helps that you can't miss BHs at net, though actually, he does that twice too
Murray's got 8 passing winners (he only has 3 non-pass winners). Fed's volleying errors are a lowly 2 UEs (discounting the BH at net). Fed approaches in multitude of ways - serve-volleying (off both serves), return-approaching (chips or hard hit), hitting into open court and coming in, slicing low to manufacture approach from neutral position - all of it done well and backed up by volleying both solid and punishing
Fed lets OH balls bounce, even retreating to hit 1 from the baseline. Its usually a good ploy if a players has the time, but outside Fed's norm. Doesn't make much difference - Murray hits a freak passing winner against an OH on the bounce - but there's no accounting for that type of things
All credit to Murray on the pass to keep him down to 67% net points won
d) is solid relative to his opponent (it'd be hard not to be) - UEs read Murray 15, Fed 44. Almost all discredit to Fed for that discrepancy. Murray doesn't have much space to showcase even sound consistency
Generally, Murray's play is subtle, with change ups of pace and spin having a hand in disarming opponents or keeping them from getting into rhythm. No need for any of that here... just play to Fed's BH and let him miss
Federer isn't all bad. In fact, his attacking play is excellent
28 winners to 10 winner attempt UEs is outstanding. He lashes back-away FHs (4 inside-in winners, 3 inside-out), early on even gets a few good BH dtl's off (3 winners from the baseline). And smartly, he joins the aggression off the ground to net play. Its a slow court and hitting past someone like Murray purely from back is unlikely to work
Adding errors forced, Fed finishes -5 points ended aggressively/UE differential (28 winners, forces 11 errors, 44 UEs)... which given how bad he is of basic consistency, needs remarkable attacking success to achieve. Murray breaks even (11 winners, 4 errors forced, 15 UEs) on the same measure
Its more than enough given Murray leads unreturned serves by 15% - which goes back to quality of Murray's no fuss, comfortable returning
- not very good returning from Fed. 10 UEs and 10 FEs on a court where even powerful first serves aren't too bothersome as long as they're not wide. Some hefty serving from Murray, but 33% unreturend rate is flattering figure for him. Plenty of room for improvement in Fed's returning consistency
- is horrendous off basic consistency. 23 of his UEs are neutral shots (Murray has 10). 11 more are attacking, which on this court and with Murray's movement were unlikely to draw an error anyway (Murray has 2 attacking UEs)
Weak showings from Fed's BH aren't uncommon - be it shot lacking punch or consistency. The odd miss on the routine, neutral BH shot is almost always there. This match though is a step beyond all that - possibly the worst BH showing of his career
Match Progression
Fed starts the match on twinkling feet and apparently out for blood. He holds to open with 3 winners - third ball FH inside-out and inside-in winners and a BH drop shot at net - followed by an ace
Murray's down 0-40 at 1-2, but comes through to win next 5 points, with Fed missing 5 BHs - 1 pass, the rest UEs, including a return
Fed's broken next game to 15. He misses 2 aggressive FHs to start, and misses a not-easy OH and a routine third ball BH to finish. He's broken again to end the set - couple of FH misses and finishing by missing a BH at net
Poor game by Murray sees him get broken to open the 2nd set. Fed balances his attacking play better and starts coming to net, much more than the 1st set. Some excellent tennis with Fed at net and Murray making some unlikely passes. Murray breaks back to level at 2-2 and pushes Fed to 10 point hold in a game where Fed's at net 4 times
A very strong game by Fed to break again - including a runaround return FH inside-in winner and on break point, a swished FH cc one from near regulation position, with a couple of net points thrown in. He serves out to love awhile later to even the match, pseudo-tanking a return game in between
3rd set starts normally enough with pair trading holds and Fed pushing Murray to deuce in third game. At deuce, Fed misses a simple enough running-down-drop-shot at net he's upto in good time and Murray follows with an ace
Turning point is first point of next game. Murray fends a first serve high into the air and Fed races up, allows the ball to bounce and dispatches the OH on the bounce with full power. Only Murray's moved in right direction and holds his racquet out to send ball back past him for a the passing winner. A 1/500 shot
From 15-15, Fed misses 2 routine third ball neutral BHs (the first, a touch wide). He does better the point after and waits for 5th ball to miss the BH, this time a slice for variety
Fed opens his next service game by missing an easy FHV into open court and more errors sees him broken again. Murray makes a story of the serve-out, making just 4/14 first serves and having to save 2 break points but gets there in the end with an unreturned serve
Summing up, matter-of-fact solid returning and some very good passing against strong opposition from Murray. On the whole, excellent attacking play by Federer - at his best when mixing shot-making from the back with net approaches. All that is outweighed by a very poor showing from the loser in missing routine BHs
Stats for the final between Murray and Rafael Nadal - Match Stats/Report - Nadal vs Murray, Indian Wells final, 2009 | Talk Tennis (tennis-warehouse.com)
Murray would go onto lose the final to Rafael Nadal. Federer had recently been runner-up at the Australian Open
Murray won 86 points, Federer 70
Serve Stats
Murray...
- 1st serve percentage (49/82) 60%
- 1st serve points won (35/49) 71%
- 2nd serve points won (19/33) 58%
- Aces 7 (1 not clean)
- Double Faults 3
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (27/82) 33%
Federer...
- 1st serve percentage (42/74) 57%
- 1st serve points won (27/42) 64%
- 2nd serve points won (15/32) 47%
- Aces 3
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (13/74) 18%
Serve Patterns
Murray served...
- to FH 34%
- to BH 66%
Federer served...
- to FH 45%
- to BH 45%
- to Body 11%
Return Stats
Murray made...
- 61 (31 FH, 30 BH)
- 10 Errors, comprising...
- 4 Unforced (4 BH)
- 6 Forced (3 FH, 3 BH)
- Return Rate (61/74) 82%
Federer made...
- 52 (21 FH, 31 BH), including 2 runaround FHs & 3 return-approaches
- 3 (3 FH), including 1 runaround FH
- 20 Errors, comprising...
- 10 Unforced (3 FH, 7 BH), including 1 runaround FH
- 10 Forced ( FH, BH)
- Return Rate (52/79) 66%
Break Points
Murray 5/6 (5 games)
Federer 2/10 (4 games)
Winners (excluding serves, including returns)
Murray 11 (6 FH, 5 BH)
Federer 28 (13 FH, 5 BH, 2 FHV, 3 BHV, 5 OH)
Murray's FHs - 3 cc passes (1 net chord flicker), 1 dtl pass, 1 inside-in and 1 longline
- BHs - 2 cc passes, 1 inside-out pass, 1 lob and 1 drop shot
Federer's FHs - 2 cc (1 return), 1 cc/inside-in, 1 dtl, 4 inside-out (1 return) and 5 inside-in (1 runaround return)
- BHs - 4 dtl (1 slice at net) and 1 drop shot at net
- 2 from serve-volley points (1 FHV, 1 BHV), both first volleys
- 4 OHs were on the bounce - 1 from baseline, 1 from no-man's land, 1 from close to service line that's been counted a net point
Errors (excluding serves and returns)
Murray 26
- 15 Unforced (8 FH, 7 BH)
- 11 Forced (6 FH, 5 BH)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 45.3
Federer 48
- 44 Unforced (17 FH, 25 BH, 1 FHV, 1 OH)... with 1 BH at net & 1 BH running-down-drop-shot at net
- 4 Forced (2 FH, 2 BH)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 47.0
(Note 1: all half-volleys refer to such shots played at net. Half -volleys played from other parts of the court are included within relevant groundstroke counts)
(Note 2: the Unforced Error Forcefulness Index is an indicator of how aggressive the average UE was. The numbers presented for these two matches are keyed on 4 categories - 20 defensive, 40 neutral, 50 attacking and 60 winner attempt)
Net Points & Serve-Volley
Murray was...
- 3/5 (60%) at net, with...
- 1/1 retreated
Federer was...
- 24/36 (67%) at net, including...
- 4/7 (57%) serve-volleying, comprising...
- 3/4 (75%) off 1st serve and...
- 1/3 (33%) off 2nd serve
---
- 2/3 (67%) return-approaching
- 2/2 forced back/retreated
Match Report
Federer attacks well from front and back. Federer routinely misses routine BHs. Murray watches from other end. Court is slow. QED
Murray does a little bit more than watch from the other end, but basically, that's it
Murray -
a) returns everything. Keeps Fed to just 3 aces (he has 7) and very low 18% unreturned rate. Not just high return rate, but reasonably neutralizing returns against the first serve and Fed wins just 64% first serve points, despite attacking well
This is common feature of the match-up, regardless of result. Murray always returns Federer well and in this very way; keeping to a minimimum both Fed's freebies and easy third ball attacking options
b) hits everything to Fed's BH. BHs go cc and FHs go longline. Not hard. Normal depth. Not pressuring. Not with mixed up paces or spin. Just routine, neutral BH cc's
And Fed blinks. 25 BH UEs for Fed. Putting that in perspective -
- Murray has 15 UEs and 26 errors total
- Fed has 19 non-BH UEs and 23 errors (sans BH UEs)
c) some good passing from Murray against a very sharp at net Fed. Fed's excellent in forecourt - quick to come in, sure on the volley, good of placement and in following-up to cover the net. It helps that you can't miss BHs at net, though actually, he does that twice too
Murray's got 8 passing winners (he only has 3 non-pass winners). Fed's volleying errors are a lowly 2 UEs (discounting the BH at net). Fed approaches in multitude of ways - serve-volleying (off both serves), return-approaching (chips or hard hit), hitting into open court and coming in, slicing low to manufacture approach from neutral position - all of it done well and backed up by volleying both solid and punishing
Fed lets OH balls bounce, even retreating to hit 1 from the baseline. Its usually a good ploy if a players has the time, but outside Fed's norm. Doesn't make much difference - Murray hits a freak passing winner against an OH on the bounce - but there's no accounting for that type of things
All credit to Murray on the pass to keep him down to 67% net points won
d) is solid relative to his opponent (it'd be hard not to be) - UEs read Murray 15, Fed 44. Almost all discredit to Fed for that discrepancy. Murray doesn't have much space to showcase even sound consistency
Generally, Murray's play is subtle, with change ups of pace and spin having a hand in disarming opponents or keeping them from getting into rhythm. No need for any of that here... just play to Fed's BH and let him miss
Federer isn't all bad. In fact, his attacking play is excellent
28 winners to 10 winner attempt UEs is outstanding. He lashes back-away FHs (4 inside-in winners, 3 inside-out), early on even gets a few good BH dtl's off (3 winners from the baseline). And smartly, he joins the aggression off the ground to net play. Its a slow court and hitting past someone like Murray purely from back is unlikely to work
Adding errors forced, Fed finishes -5 points ended aggressively/UE differential (28 winners, forces 11 errors, 44 UEs)... which given how bad he is of basic consistency, needs remarkable attacking success to achieve. Murray breaks even (11 winners, 4 errors forced, 15 UEs) on the same measure
Its more than enough given Murray leads unreturned serves by 15% - which goes back to quality of Murray's no fuss, comfortable returning
- not very good returning from Fed. 10 UEs and 10 FEs on a court where even powerful first serves aren't too bothersome as long as they're not wide. Some hefty serving from Murray, but 33% unreturend rate is flattering figure for him. Plenty of room for improvement in Fed's returning consistency
- is horrendous off basic consistency. 23 of his UEs are neutral shots (Murray has 10). 11 more are attacking, which on this court and with Murray's movement were unlikely to draw an error anyway (Murray has 2 attacking UEs)
Weak showings from Fed's BH aren't uncommon - be it shot lacking punch or consistency. The odd miss on the routine, neutral BH shot is almost always there. This match though is a step beyond all that - possibly the worst BH showing of his career
Match Progression
Fed starts the match on twinkling feet and apparently out for blood. He holds to open with 3 winners - third ball FH inside-out and inside-in winners and a BH drop shot at net - followed by an ace
Murray's down 0-40 at 1-2, but comes through to win next 5 points, with Fed missing 5 BHs - 1 pass, the rest UEs, including a return
Fed's broken next game to 15. He misses 2 aggressive FHs to start, and misses a not-easy OH and a routine third ball BH to finish. He's broken again to end the set - couple of FH misses and finishing by missing a BH at net
Poor game by Murray sees him get broken to open the 2nd set. Fed balances his attacking play better and starts coming to net, much more than the 1st set. Some excellent tennis with Fed at net and Murray making some unlikely passes. Murray breaks back to level at 2-2 and pushes Fed to 10 point hold in a game where Fed's at net 4 times
A very strong game by Fed to break again - including a runaround return FH inside-in winner and on break point, a swished FH cc one from near regulation position, with a couple of net points thrown in. He serves out to love awhile later to even the match, pseudo-tanking a return game in between
3rd set starts normally enough with pair trading holds and Fed pushing Murray to deuce in third game. At deuce, Fed misses a simple enough running-down-drop-shot at net he's upto in good time and Murray follows with an ace
Turning point is first point of next game. Murray fends a first serve high into the air and Fed races up, allows the ball to bounce and dispatches the OH on the bounce with full power. Only Murray's moved in right direction and holds his racquet out to send ball back past him for a the passing winner. A 1/500 shot
From 15-15, Fed misses 2 routine third ball neutral BHs (the first, a touch wide). He does better the point after and waits for 5th ball to miss the BH, this time a slice for variety
Fed opens his next service game by missing an easy FHV into open court and more errors sees him broken again. Murray makes a story of the serve-out, making just 4/14 first serves and having to save 2 break points but gets there in the end with an unreturned serve
Summing up, matter-of-fact solid returning and some very good passing against strong opposition from Murray. On the whole, excellent attacking play by Federer - at his best when mixing shot-making from the back with net approaches. All that is outweighed by a very poor showing from the loser in missing routine BHs
Stats for the final between Murray and Rafael Nadal - Match Stats/Report - Nadal vs Murray, Indian Wells final, 2009 | Talk Tennis (tennis-warehouse.com)
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