In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, “Peak Performance”, Data is asked to compete against against Sirma Kolrami, an expert at the game of Strategema.  When he loses, Data questions if he is flawed and this bothers him for the entire episode.  Eventually, he schedules a re-match.  In it, he “beats” Kolrami by playing for a stalemate.  Rather than attempt to win, he tries for a draw.

In a sense, this is how Djokovic is playing these days.  Djokovic has become a wall.  He runs down so many shots and places them in positions where the other player can’t easily attack that they are left gambling, trying to hit hard, and hoping not to miss too often.  John Isner managed to beat Djokovic mostly by serving huge and taking big risks off the ground.  Neither is a strong suit for Andy Murray.  Murray serves big, but he doesn’t do it frequently enough.  Murray can hit big groundstrokes, but it’s not the way he prefers to win.

He has sometimes played very well and hit big.  The most notable match was when he beat Nadal last year in Tokyo.  However, if Murray is not feeling it, he has to play more conservatively.  Murray already prefers not to aim too close to the lines unless he’s hitting crosscourt.  If he has to play too conservatively, then he runs the risk of losing because his opponent can take advantage.

Meanwhile, Djokovic has learned to be a practice wall.  He’s patient enough to outwait his opponent.  In case he plays a guy like Nadal, he’s willing to pull the trigger after about the 15th shot.

The stats will tell you that Murray lost because he made too many unforced errors.  And this is true.  That is exactly how he lost.  He didn’t have time to hit big shots nor the confidence to do it.  But he was playing a lot of shots.  Those unforced errors didn’t come 10 shots into the rally, but 20 shots.  Ideally, Murray would like to end the points sooner.

What helped Djokovic win was his ability to hold serve more easily than Murray.  Djokovic had plenty of chances to break.  In the first, he broke plenty.  However, Murray managed to hold serve more often in the second set, and didn’t get broken, but it was quite a task, and he had few opportunities to break.  All things considered, Djokovic was in control of the second set.  However, given they kept it even, Murray just needed one good game to force the third set.

The match went into tiebreak and Djokovic got too far ahead for Murray to catch up.

While Murray didn’t win, he did better than the last two years, where he lost in the opening round of Miami.  The positive news is this will add to his point total while Djokovic was “merely” defending his points from winning the title last year.

Now, we head to clay and will pretty much stay in Europe for 3-4 months.  Clay runs until early-mid June, then grass at Wimbledon and Olympics.

Meanwhile, much like Data, Djokovic can say he “busted him up” to his finals opponent.