Irony.
Andy Murray might have been genuinely injured. He might’ve needed treatment, he might’ve been completely justified or maybe he was just getting his own back on Andreas Seppi.
But it’s safe to say that the Scotsman isn’t being called British tonight by the English contingent who saw his tactics to call a medical trainer during a wobble in form as underhand and hypocritical.
Murray wasn’t happy when Novak Djokovic seemed to disrupt their Australian Open final to get treatment – coinciding with a direct interruption to Andy’s dominance and Djoker sauntering to victory over a wound-up opponent.
Tonight at Wimbledon, the British number one was tearing strips off Seppi until a calf injury of the Italian halted the play. Murray duly imploded in the third set and lost the opener of the fourth so decided to have a little timeout of his own – going on to win the fourth and final set 6-1.
And even the official tournament Twitter account made light of it.
Andy Murray: "A 90 kilo guy lying on top of you isn't that pleasant – but it helped!" #Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/025VdxTp1y
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 4, 2015
But some of the spectators weren’t happy at good, old Andy for apparently implementing Djokovic’s tactics (if Djokovic’s tactics really are to get injured).
https://twitter.com/brianking80/status/617413051579543552
Gamesmanship @Wimbledon from Andy Murray according set standards by which Djokovic is judged
— Sannie 🦋🌕🐊🐌🐺 (@DjokerSA) July 4, 2015
https://twitter.com/JamesDesigns_/status/617410968650416128
Shameless tactics from Djokovic there, taking that MTO right after Seppi broke… Wait… it's Murray playing?
— Murray (@2ndServeHack) July 4, 2015
Murray has been watching Djokovic with that medical timeout
— Tom (@BettingGSW) July 4, 2015
Murray complaining about Djokovic but doing the same thing just LOL Great stuff
— Eitu Taera (@zveljka) July 4, 2015
Murray now marches on to the last 16 to face Ivo Karlovic and the way we see it is if these timeouts really help him avoid meltdowns, keep them up, Andy.
(Maybe just don’t cry about it when someone does it to you though)
