Andy Murray is a chameleon.  Most of the times, he plays a steady form of tennis, getting crosscourt angles.  Early in his career, he fell in love with the drop shot and his slices and his change of pace and incredible speed and anticipation made for a deadly combination.  Players would find themselves making errors because they weren’t used to the sudden change of pace.  Murray was an odd beast in a game that traditionally favored high testosterone machismo, ball-bashing of the highest order.  His game was sometimes criticized for being too passive, letting his opponents overpower him.  Murray seemed content trying to lure his opponent to play a shot too aggressive and using his speed to get a shot back that his opponent didn’t expect.

At a particularly low point in Murray’s career this year, Murray started working on his clay court game.  Murray had just been humiliated in a loss to Philipp Kohlschreiber at Monte Carlo, a hangover from his surprising loss to Mardy Fish.  Murray could have signed up for Barcelona, a place he often trains, but he chose to use that week to train with Alex Corretja and a bevy of solid clay courters that would hit with him.  Although Murray would lose to Ferrer in Rome and then again in Madrid, he was able to play much longer rallies, hone sharper hitting, and feel that if he had a decent draw, he’d give someone trouble at the French.

He passed his first test, a five setter against a semi-resurgent Richard Gasquet, but eventually lost to Tomas Berdych, the rangy Czech who reached the semis.

Murray’s year had been indifferent up until Toronto.  There, he put together three of his best matches in a row.  He beat a red hot David Nalbandian playing aggressive tennis and taking advantage of some fatigue that Nalbandian may have sustained from playing too much (Nalbandian hasn’t played nearly as well since this loss to Murray).  Murray was able to beat a somewhat error-prone Nadal in the semifinals then beat Federer in the finals.

However, the following week in Cincy, Murray seemed a bit winded, and lost to Mardy Fish for the third time this year (also lost at Miami and Queen’s).  Everyone felt this was a strategic loss, one meant to keep him fresh for the US Open, except Murray came out flat against frequent hitting partner, Stanislas Wawrinka, and lost early in the US Open, perhaps the one Slam that Murray most desperately wants to win, and one that is well suited to his game.

Andy Murray played Beijing but had a loss to veteran, Ivan Ljubicic.  However, coming into Shanghai, Murray had a very nice draw.  He beat a Chinese wildcad in the second round, then qualifier Jeremy Chardy, then an out of sorts Jo-Wilfried Tsonga who had only recently returned back to tour, and then a surprise semifinalist in Juan Monaco who beat Jurgen Melzer who upset Rafael Nadal.

There was some thought that Roger Federer had had the tougher draw and this would make him match hard.  He started, right off the bat, against John Isner, then a relatively easy Andreas Seppi, then a surprisingly easy win over Robin Soderling, and a solid win over Novak Djokovic.  It was obvious that Federer played the tougher draw and had pretty comfortable wins throughout, while Murray did not face the toughest competition.

Murray appeared to have regressed back to his more passive style.  The one big change Murray has made lately is to work the crosscourt groundies, trying to hit it deep within a few inches of the corner near the sideline.  It’s not so short nor so lacking in pace that his opponents can hit a sharp angle as a reply.  Murray still lacks the confidence to go for down the line shots on either his forehand or backhand, but his goal appears to be to make his crosscourt shot, flat and rock-solid.  Well, flat for a post-millenial pro like Murray (meaning, still plenty of topspin, but relatively flat).

Murray had beaten Roger Federer in Toronto playing an aggressive style.  Surely Murray would adjust his playing style to play Federer once again.  The one gotcha in Murray’s match against Juan Monaco was his relatively low serving percentage.  Murray appeared to be taking an unusual gamble with his serving style.  Serve a lower first serve percentage but win a high percentage of his first serves.  Murray said he wanted to practice his serve and that the dip in his first serve percentage was due to a late start and cooler weather.

Murray started off the match with a quick break and held that break throughout the first set.  Murray was using his backhand and aiming to Federer’s backhand.  Murray’s speed and flatness of shot was sometimes robbing Federer of the time he normally likes.  Federer was hitting 3, 4, 5 hard shots in a row and Murray was able to get his groundies back solid against Federer.  Murray’s steadiness, a problem in the middle of the year, seems to have been solved.  Points that lasted more than a dozen shots generally went Murray’s way.

Murray threatened to take a second break, but Federer held tough until the very end of the first set when Federer lost his serve again to give Murray the set, 6-3.

Murray started the second set in trouble.  In both of his first two service games, he was down 15-40.  It may say something about Murray’s mental toughness that he fought out of both games including a 30-40 point in the second serve game where Murray won a length rally.  Murray takes his chances with up-the-line forehands and backhands.

Then, Murray gets a break as Federer is unable to make the winners he wants, the ones that he was making against Djokovic.  Murray’s defense is making Federer antsy, and he’s taking it out on umpire, speaking in French.  The crowd is not too happy.  Federer’s errors start coming fast and furious.  Federer again goes down a break, and then loses his serve to lose the match for a second break.

Overall, Murray played very solid tennis.  His speed and consistency is back to where it was in January.  He’s hitting harder shots that robs Federer of time.  Unlike Djokovic, Murray’s never been super comfortable hitting the down the line shot, but he did it well enough to win.  Federer wasn’t hitting too bad, at least initially, but it was taking him more than a few shots to get a winner on Murray and that probably bothered Federer.  Although Federer hit an amazing number of first serves in while Murray was just around 50%, Murray was more effective winning first serve points.

Final score: 6-3, 6-2.

What is impressive is Murray’s lack of a tactical coach.  His support comes from the guys who help him with movement and his physio.  He may be doing a Federer.  Murray is a smart guy and he understands the game well, so maybe he’ll be in charge of his own coaching for a while.  Of course, Federer is now working with Annacone.

Federer ran into the same problem against Murray that he did the previous time.  He’s finding it hard to hit winners against Murray and so he’s making errors and not being patient enough.  It’s the way he’s always played, but it hurts.  His serve is not giving him enough free points while Murray’s is.  Having said that, Federer isn’t shanking the ball like he did earlier this year, and I think he’s not actually hitting too poorly.  He just ran into a red-hot Murray and is looking more to the twilight of his career.  He should be happy with his wins over Soderling and Djokovic as evidence that he’s still playing well.

The next Masters 1000 event is the Paris Indoors.  The tour heads over to Europe with events in Moscow, Basel, Valencia, Lyon, and eventually Paris, then two weeks later, the ATP World Tour Finals.  Four players have already qualified: Nadal, Federer, Djokovic, and Murray.  Four more are still pending.  Robin Soderling is the likely fifth, and perhaps David Ferrer, then the other two will come to last minute pushes to get there.  Andy Roddick could qualify, but he needs to get healthy soon.  Berdych might just back in without playing all that well.

Congrats to Murray