Andy Murray of Britain reacts during his Men’s singles semifinal match against Jerzy Janowicz of Poland at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships in Wimbledon, London, Friday, July 5, 2013. AP
LONDON — For the second match in a row, Andy Murray was quite a bit closer to losing than winning.
No matter now, because for the second year in a row, Andy Murray is in the Wimbledon final.
Britain’s great hope for a first homegrown men’s champion since 1936 overturned a 4-1 deficit in the third set and went on to beat Jerzy Janowicz 6-7 (2), 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 Friday in the Wimbledon semifinals.
Now, again in the final of the biggest tennis tournament on these shores, he’s got one more match to go.
“Winning Wimbledon would be a huge achievement for any tennis player,” said Murray, who followed up his loss to Roger Federer at the All England Club last year by winning the U.S. Open title. “Yeah, winning Wimbledon is pretty much the pinnacle of the sport.”
In the final, Murray will face Novak Djokovic, the top-ranked Serb who has become a familiar foe in Grand Slam finals.
Sunday’s match will be their third meeting in the last four major finals. Murray won his only Grand Slam title at last year’s U.S. Open, while Djokovic won this year’s Australian Open.
Oh yeah, they also played in the 2012 Olympic semifinals on the same Centre Court grass at Wimbledon, a match Murray won in two sets before going on to claim the gold medal.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever have, sort of, feelings like I had that day,” said Murray, perhaps underestimating the emotions that would come with a Wimbledon title. “Winning Olympic gold here, a home Olympics, I mean, I’ll never get the opportunity to do that again.
“It was probably one of the proudest moments of my career. I don’t know if I’ll ever top that.”
Fred Perry was the last British man to win the men’s title at Wimbledon, completing a run of three straight championships in 1936. Since then, only two have even reached the final at the All England Club, Bunny Austin in 1938 and Murray last year.
But this is a new year, and another chance for Murray.
“I think I’ll be probably in a better place mentally,” Murray said. “I would hope so just because I’ve been there before. I won a Grand Slam. I would hope I would be a little bit calmer going into Sunday.
“But you don’t know. You don’t decide that. I might wake up on Sunday and be unbelievably nervous, more nervous than I ever have been before.”
Nerves may get to him, but the pressure of playing from behind probably won’t.
On Thursday, Murray lost a tight first set to Janowicz and then got broken for the first and only time early in the third to eventually fall behind 4-1. He responded quickly, though, breaking twice and winning five straight games to take the set.
The match then took a short break, about 30 minutes, as the roof was closed because light was fading. Murray was angered by the decision at first, perhaps because last year’s Wimbledon final changed in favor of Federer when the roof was closed because of rain on the final day.
But on Friday, it didn’t seem to matter at all.
“It worked out OK for me in the end,” Murray said.
In the quarterfinals, Murray was facing an even more dire situation. He lost the first two sets against Fernando Verdasco before pulling out a huge comeback victory.
It will be tougher against Djokovic, tougher in the final. But maybe his coach, eight-time Grand Slam champion Ivan Lendl, will deliver the pep talk Murray needs to finally win one on the green grass of home.
“I’m going to tell him,” Lendl said, “to win the last point.”