How incredible is Madrid?
The vision of Spain has always haunted my dreams. The idealistic old man in Don Quixote, riding a skinny horse and holding a rusted spear, dashes without hesitation toward the spinning windmill. This represents idealism in real life.
In addition to realistic ideals, Madrid also has ideal realities. For sports fans like me, Madrid is a place where ideals can shine into reality. Whether it's the legend of Real Madrid or the tennis academy on Mallorca, named after Nadal, it's the perfect place I'll have to visit in my life.
How incredible is Madrid? At 6 p.m. Beijing time today, the Madrid Masters will stage a long-lost showdown - after five years, Djokovic will play against Murray again.
As soon as the signing came out, I kept secretly cheering for Murray. I'm looking forward to Murray winning two games in a row and meeting his old rival Djokovic again.
The admirable old Scottish boy did not live up to my expectations after all, he defeated Thiem 6-3 6-4 in the first round, winning both easily and not easily, both reasonably and unexpectedly; in the second round, he defeated Shapovalov 6-1 3-6 6-2, although playing three sets, but each set was not too sticky, and it took only 22 minutes longer than the previous one.
The persistence of the veteran is always touching. From the "retirement" of the 2019 Australian Open to the return of two surgeries, Murray was tragically hit by a round of travel in more than 10 races, and many people questioned the significance of his hard comeback, and even reprimanded him for not being worthy of so many wild cards.
Faced with unbearable results and surging doubts, Murray chose to persevere. As an accomplished player, Murray could have lived in peace in the book of merit, but people always saw him alone in subway stations and airports carrying large bags and small bags, looking like a wandering "migrant worker", not at all like the former world number one, unlike the British Jazz who won three Grand Slam titles and two Olympic singles gold medals.
What moved me was not only Murray's low-key way of doing things, but I felt that the people who still insisted on this part must come from the love of tennis and must have a pure heart. After the outbreak of the Russo-Ukrainian War, Murray was the first and so far only tennis player to announce that he would donate all of the prize money for the rest of the year to humanitarian relief.
When I was a child studying the text "In Memory of Bethune", I was particularly impressed by one of the passages, "A person has great and small abilities, but as long as he has this spirit, he is a noble person, a pure person, a moral person, a person who is detached from low-level interests, a person who is beneficial to the people." Years later, I realized that this passage could also be applied to Murray.
Murray and Djokovic have known each other since childhood and have played each other 36 times in their careers, with Murray winning 11 and losing 25. The two have played each other 19 times in the final, with Murray winning 8 and losing 11. In the most important Grand Slam final, the two have played each other seven times, with Murray winning 2 and losing 5.
Looking ahead to the upcoming Madrid quarter-final, Murray said: "He's number one in the world and I have a metal hip! I didn't know I would have the opportunity to play in a race like this again. Theoretically I shouldn't have a chance in the next game. But I've done my best to put myself in a good position, which is a great opportunity to play him on centre court for the big tournaments. ”
Murray, 34, is currently ranked 78th in the ATP singles world rankings. Looking back on the past period of life, he said, "In the last four or five weeks, I've trained very hard, my competitive form is much better than at the beginning of the year, and it has had a huge impact on my whole race. ”
The huge impact Murray is clearly referring to is the clay season that is getting better. He was originally planning to skip the clay season and return to England to play the grass court game he was most familiar with. After unexpectedly winning a wild card from the Madrid Masters, Murray decided to give it a try, and he trained on clay for about four weeks. Now, such efforts have brought him real rewards.
Murray's last meeting with Djokovic came at the Qatar Open in January 2017, when Djokovic won 6-3, 5-7, 6-4. Now, more than 5 years have passed since the last meeting. During this time, the world has changed a lot, and so have the two players.
Yesterday, Djokovic praised Murray's determination to return to the pitch after two hip surgeries. "Murray is moving well now and playing better and better. It's great to see, he's a big player on the tour. He has won several Grand Slams and gold medals and reached number one in the world, leaving his mark on the history of our sport. Given the surgery and what he's been through over the past few years, his resilience and fighting spirit are truly inspiring. ”
Madrid is incredible. Murray is once again facing Djokovic, and he allows us to witness that the incredible things in tennis are still continuing. In my opinion, no matter how many times he was violently punched in the face by failure, no matter how many times he was thrown on the cusp of fate, Murray still had to choke the bull's ear of fate. When those great legends have faded away, Murray still has fire in his chest, light in his eyes, and roar in his mouth, which is the real hero, the real idealist.
Jolin Tsai sang in "Madrid Is Not Thinking", "Madrid does not think, suddenly miss you so much." This line, which was originally a love song, became the most vivid annotation of the two great players tonight. (Source: Tennis House Author: Yun Cirrus Yunshu)