MELBOURNE, Australia — Not all of Andy Murray’s self-criticism was printable on Wednesday afternoon during his outdoor-indoor quarterfinal against David Ferrer.
But there was at least some family-friendly material. “Terrible, terrible, terrible,” he uttered and muttered at one stage early in the third set, before the roof was closed because of impending rain.
Rarely has a man held serve at this level amid so much negativity, but Murray is still very dangerous even when he looks as if he would rather be doing anything except deploying his prodigious talent on a tennis court.
David Ferrer, the enduring 33-year-old Spaniard, has played him and lost to him often enough to know.