World No. 2 Federer Unlikely Underdog Against Murray at Indian Wells
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It will be an anomaly when world No. 2 Roger Federer enter’s Saturday’s match against Britain’s Andy Murray as the underdog in the semifinals at Indian Wells.
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Federer is 2-5 career versus Murray, and will attempt to stop a slide that includes losses in their last three meetings
“He’s a great player and great players are tough to play against,” Federer said of Murray. “He’s young, so you still have to figure him out a little bit. He’s changing his game as time goes by. Every time you play him, he plays a bit different. Whereas for me, it’s different. He knows what to expect. That’s the advantage of a youngster.”
The 27-year-old Federer sees his advantage over the “youngster” Murray in big matches.
“I’m aware he has beaten me more than I’ve beaten him but, on big occasions, I think I came through,” Federer told reporters. “I have to build on that and make sure I play a tough and good match against him. Anything else is not going to do the job.”
Federer lost to Murray this year in Doha and the two times before that in 2008, but beat the Brit en route to the title at last year’s US Open.
“I’ve just got to make sure I finish because I know it’s not physical, the end of the matches,” said Federer of the best-of-three format at Indian Wells. “Three sets, it never really becomes physical. It’s only maybe in the fifth set if that were to happen.”
Murray has a unique philosophy against Federer that other players could learn from — don’t press and try to do too much. Leverage the weaker Federer backhand, but don’t feel you have to ‘go for broke.’
“It’s important to serve solid, make a lot of balls and not feel like you have to do anything special on each point to win against him,” Murray says.
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