It was said, when you had a player that scored as much as Michael Jordan, that he would get his.  You just hoped to contain everyone else.  When Nadal is on clay, he generally gets his.  You have to be playing some amazing dirt ball, and then, you have to hope he’s injured.

If you had told the average tennis enthusiast that, on clay, Andy Murray would make it further in the tournament than Roger Federer, most everyone would have laughed.  Sure, Andy Murray is a talented player, one that has been ranked as high as three before.  But he had been in a slump since reaching the finals in Melbourne and getting a thumping by Novak Djokovic.

Three tournaments and three losses.  Not even a set won.  OK, the first seemed forgivable.  Marcos Baghdatis is a tough player, but the second set wasn’t even close.  Then, it spiraled out of control.  First, a loss to Donald Young.  Some even thought, quite positively, that Young had made a breakthrough (he hadn’t).   Then, a loss to Alex Bogomolov.  These aren’t up-and-comers.  They aren’t Milos Raonic in waiting.

So when Murray ended Miami making a April Fool’s joke, at least, one could say that Murray was in a good mood.

Last year, Murray moped right up until Monte Carlo where he was beaten handily by Phillipp Kohlschreiber.  It was only then, after hours of hitting, that Murray got back some of his game, losing to Ferrer in two consecutive tournaments.  Murray even beat a recovering Gasquet to open up the French Open.

But few felt, with a slump worse than last year, that Murray would recover on clay.  Until 2009, Murray had never gotten past the third round of a clay tournament.  2009 was a breakthrough of sorts.  Murray reached the semis of Monte Carlo losing to Rafa in the semis.  He made the quarterfinals of the French, losing to Fernando Gonzalez who has pretty much dropped off the face of the earth.  It was thought 2010 would be an improvement.  It was OK, but Ferrer had an amazing 2010.

So when Murray beat Stepanek, at least, he won a match.  Then he beat a gimpy Gilles Simon.  Then, a rather low ranked Frederico Gil.  It was a bit of a fortunate draw for Murray, but he had a similar draw in Shanghai and ended up winning the tournament.

Alas, he’s now going to face his first tough opponent, six-time defending champ.  Murray remains upbeat and positive, but everyone knows it’s a tough day at the office playing Rafa on his best surface.

Meanwhile, Roger Federer, who rarely loses to players around his age, finally lost to Melzer.  Melzer likes to feel that his game is good enough to beat any of the top players.  He beat Djokovic at the French.  He beat Nadal in Shanghai, and now Federer.  Melzer plays a brutish sort of tennis, a modern day version of countryman, Thomas Muster, also a lefty.  He finally put enough of a match together to beat someone he’s known since junior days.

Federer probably couldn’t leave quick enough, if only to avoid those tiring questions of whether he is in decline, whether he’s in a slump.  Although his losses have only been to top ten players, he hasn’t beaten a top ten player in 2011.  Admittedly, five of those matches have been against top 2 players and Melzer is the other guy (he’s 9).  Most people would take that as their only losses on the year.  Still, it’s Federer, and people have been trumpeting his retirement since 2008.

Rafa, for his part, had an easy day over Ivan Ljubicic, who had a pretty decent clay event.  Ferrer beat Troicki rather handily, continuing his good form in 2011.

This is leading to a Melzer-Ferrer semi (Ferrer has taken the first set) and a Rafa-Andy match.

Let’s see how real Andy’s comeback is!