Andy Murray was embarrassed the last time he faced Roger Federer but insists he has come up with a plan to make sure that doesn’t happen again on Friday at Wimbledon.
The British No 1 was thrashed 6-0, 6-1 at the ATP World Tour Finals at London’s O2 Arena in November in a one-sided match which only lasted 56 minutes in Greenwich.
Murray’s camp re-evaluated his entire game in the wake of the humbling at the hands of the legendary Swiss star and will have the chance to put their new theories to the test on Friday.
Federer is all that now stands between Murray and a place in the final at the All England Club as the two giants of the sport prepare to go head-to-head in a mouth-watering semi-final clash.
“Well, I was actually quite calm after that match,” Murray said of his harrowing experience in November as Federer ran riot. “I've spoken about it a little bit, you know, this year at different stages.
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“A lot of people in my team, people around me, were very, very worried by that match. I felt quite calm about it. It was obviously embarrassing, you know, the scoreline.
“I kind of looked at the few weeks before then, the matches also that I played at the O2, the matches I played against Novak over that period as well.
“I kind of assessed it and said ‘where am I going wrong against the top guys and what is it that I need to do to get back to that level competing with them?’
“I dealt with it that way and tried to be rational about it and came back and played some extremely good tennis at the beginning of the year in Australia. So it was a tough loss, for sure.”
It was a very different experience when Murray most recently went toe-to-toe with Friday’s opponent on Centre Court as the Scot secured gold at the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Murray’s triumph came just a few weeks after losing out to Federer in the Wimbledon final and the Brit admits his career could have taken a wildly different direction if he hadn’t bounced straight back at SW19.
“Winning at the Olympics is still one of the best couple of weeks in my career,” he explained.
“It's something I'll remember forever. It was special for a number of reasons, you know, mainly because it's something I will never get the opportunity to play at a home Olympics again.
“After what had happened in the Wimbledon final, you know, a few weeks before, then to play against the same opponent in the final of the Olympics a few weeks later and win.
“It was a big turning point in my career, for sure.”
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