(WC) Murray v (WC) Wawrinka happened today in Eastbourne. Remember our little Murray is not Djokovic discussion last week? They’re dissimilar for a few reasons, but we were talking primarily about Djokovic giving Murray advice on the comeback: it’s mental, mate; it won’t be easy.
I responded then with Murray is not Djokovic.
Murray had a physical breakdown, a bad hip, and is recovering from surgery. Djokovic had a mental breakdown (and we can only begin — we did for weeks on this blog — to explore what caused that). And yes you can say he had a bad elbow, and I would say agreed. But Djokovic had clearly, at least, been in the heat of some kind of Pepe Imaz spell.
Or whatever you want to call it.
Murray looked good in his first match back at Queen’s Club, losing to Kyrgios 62 67(4) 57. Today, in his second match back, he schooled Wawrinka 1 and 3 in R1 of the Nature Valley International. Murray’s sturdy defensive skills and solid serve looked decent in drawing errors from the lack-luster Swiss, who might have had something (though not a lot) to pull from his R16 loss to Querrey in London last week, but it’s back to the drawing board as he does little on the Eastbourne grass against fellow comebacker Murray.
Carry-on.