The beautiful story of Alexandre Müller at the Doha Open therefore ends in the quarter-finals, and it is Andy Murray who will face Jiri Lehecka in the semi-finals. But Müller will really have nothing to regret. As a reminder, 170th at the start of the tournament (he will be 143rd next Monday), he had to get out of qualifying before launching his best career in an ATP tournament.
Facing an Andy Murray who has sometimes done much more than his age on the court, Müller once again showed how stubborn he is and fights on all points. He also showed what his tennis lacked, namely a real strong stroke that could bring him points more easily. Because if he won the first set, it was by tearing himself away and making the exchanges last. Endowed with a good hand which allows him to touch beautiful areas, he made martyrdom suffer for a Murray who perhaps still had heavy legs after his late victory over Alexander Zverev the day before. Led 2-0, Müller finally entered the match and broke. He was even going to pass, twice taking Murray’s serve in this first set.
The experience made the difference
Despite two hips that ring the gates at airports and a few more years on the clock (9 to be exact), Murray was able to count on his experience to get back into the game very quickly. By taking the ball earlier, he took away some reaction time from his opponent. Not used to evolving at this level, Müller lacked a bit of oxygen and the games quickly passed in favor of the Briton who returned too quickly to one set everywhere.
More disputed, the third set did not however smile more on the French. The score was even going to be severe. Obviously, this fifth match was too much for Müller who was unable to drive home the point after the first set against Andy Murray who, let’s not forget, knows how to play tennis.
