Murray braced for Federer’s fresh game plan
BRITAIN’S Andy Murray is anticipating a fresh set of problems from old adversary Roger Federer in this morning’s Australian Open quarter-final.
Federer has been in decline since reaching all four grand slam finals in 2009, having triumphed just once in the last 15 major tennis tournaments.
But the 32-year-old joined forces with two-time Wimbledon champion Stefan Edberg last month and has placed greater emphasis on his net play in Melbourne, which paid dividends in his last-16 victory over No10 seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
Murray’s career has blossomed since appointing former world No1 Ivan Lendl as his coach and feels Edberg could have a similarly positive effect on Federer’s game.
“You would assume that’s [serve-volley] something that Edberg would be able to help with. He was pretty good at that,” said Murray.
“But at the same time they’ve been working together for a week. You’ll see how much the coaches have helped the players and the things they’ve been working on in three, four, five months’ time.”
Murray and Federer, set to play at 8.30am British time, have met on 20 occasions. Murray triumphed in their most recent meeting at last year’s semi-final in Melbourne, moving him to 11 victories over the Swiss former world No1.
Meanwhile, Murray has been included in Great Britain’s team to take on the United States in next month’s Davis Cup world group tie in San Diego.
The Scot is joined by James Ward and doubles specialist Colin Fleming, but British No2 Dan Evans has been omitted with 19-year-old Kyle Edmund preferred.