I've updated this article all the time, so since it says I posted on Friday 25 March, there's loads of new stuff in it. Cool eh?? (its only me that's reading it!).
Dearie dear. Oh poor Andy Murray, things just aren't getting any better for you are they?
As the title of my post has said it all, Andy Murray has just extended his losing streak as he has just been knocked out in his first match for the third consecutive time in an ATP tournament, this time at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, by another unseeded player Alex Bogomolov (not relation to Doglypov I think!) in straight sets 1-6 5-7. This is not only starting to look embarrassing its also quite depressing, especially for British tennis, Andy Murray isn't out on court just now, its an imposter. At least his female british compatriot Elena Baltacha, who has similarly been knocked in the 2nd round, plays with a fight in her and a positive spirit. But clearly something is up with Andy Murray, I think his confidence must have taken a real beating after losing at the Australian Open as its devastated his game and now he's gone from losing poorly to losing extremely badly. Third time's a charm clearly wasn't the case with Andy, perhaps as Joe Pesci said in My Cousin Vinny, maybe six times might be a charm?! I'll give him till then at least.
What ever is wrong with Andy I really think now he should take time out from playing for a while and try and sort his head out, as his inability to even win a set never mind a match is very worrying indeed. Its a real shame for him but if you are losing to that extent I think you must really take stock of what's going wrong and look at ways to sort it out. But I don't even know if Murray is doing that and its now just shocking to follow his matches, I had a half hope he would at least take his battle with Bogomolov to him, but he didn't, he tried to fight back in the 2nd set and made it 5 games all and after that he never recovered. Dear oh dear.
But it makes me think of the ultimate irony of the results of the Australian Open, since then Djokovic has been playing the best tennis of his life, and since then Andy Murray has been playing the worst tennis of his life! And ironically the other players who lost out in the Australian Open slam, such as Ferrer and Soderling have gone on to win titles at Acapulco and Rotterdam respectively, which shows they are still playing very good tennis, so why can't Andy??? What is holding him back?? Its a mystery and perhaps even he can't quite fathom it. Also not to add insult to the injury, but both these unseeded players since have been defeated by top 20s player Tommy Robredo (defeated Donald Young) in Indians Wells and top 30s player John Isner who defeated Bogomolov in Miami. If you are a top 10 player and players seeded well above you can defeat unseeded players that defeated you, there is something seriously wrong there.
The clay season is looming as well which is of course Murray's least preferred surface, but it would be ironic if he started to play well on that surface instead, perhaps a change of surface is what he needs! But Andy's main focus just now shouldn't be trying to win titles, it should be trying to win actual matches, if he can start to do that again, it will give him more confidence, which he is soarly lacking in just now in his singles game.
On a fairly positive note, up until recently Andy was playing well in the doubles matches with his brother Jamie, as they got to the Rotterdam semi finals and quarter finals at Indian Wells, and at Miami he teamed up with Novak Djokovic of all players for the doubles, on paper they sounded like a great team. But alas, he hasn't even managed to win a match there either in Miami, as he and Djokovic lost their first match, albeit in a tight tiebreaker with the overall result 7-5, 3-6 (8-10). The result in itself was far from a disgrace, in fact it made for an excellent match, with one of the best doubles points of the tournament, Djoky and Murray in retrospect both did well, they just got unlucky. However his brother Jamie Murray so far has done a much better at Miami, as he and his doubles partner Xavier Malisse have won their first match tonight, with Malisse already having taken the Indian Wells title, perhaps they could both do the same here. Fingers crossed fer you Jamie. At least one of the Murray's will do well.
But unfortunately for Andy it is another loss which has been added to his already growing collection, so for now I think the best for thing for Andy is to take a break and reflect on how he can get back on form again. I think his next tournament is at the Barcelona Open in April, but it is on his least preferable surface, clay, will he be able to perform well there? Hmmmm not so sure, even if he could win a couple of matches there that would be something. The important thing is that Andy must start to bounce back, exactly when he will do it, God alone knows, but the sooner the better. Roger Federer over the weekend has also offered some kind words of encouragment saying that Andy will rediscover his form, and that he himself went through a few bad spells at Andy's age and he is too good a player for this to affect him for long. I'm sure he's right, just as long as its not too long.
Sadly though for Andy no matter how well he does bounce back, I really don't think he will win a grand slam this year, we all would love to see him do it and be proved wrong, but with Nadal and Djokovic still in his way I think its an impossible task this year anyway. Not unless he miraculously comes back and wins the French Open or Wimbledon, but I can hear the sound of pigs and flapping wings at that thought. A shame but let's be real. But on a more positive note I definitely think he will recover his form fairly soon, and as a prediction I think he will win the Paris Masters at the end of the year as a big consolation, and just maybe he might be in with a shout for the ATP World Tour Finals championship, its not a slam but its certainly the next best thing. Which reminds me of the Andy Murray we saw last year at the World Finals where he put in a performance against Nadal that was nothing short of spectacular, he lost by the narrowest of margins, but that's the Andy we want to see come back into the game. That Andy Murray would have even given Djokovic in his current form something to think about!
I've also recently read that former grand slam champion Ivan Lendl has expressed interest in becoming Andy Murray's new coach, which sounds great on paper as who better to be his coach than someone who has been there and done it. Lendl himself lost in his first four grand slam finals before he went on to win 8 titles in all, at the French, Australian and US Open. It might be a wise move for Murray but again it all depends on how he feels. He has also just announced that he has parted ways with his coaching consultant Alex Corretja who has worked with him for the past 3 years. And it has just been confirmed very recently that Andy Murray is very keen to appoint a new coach before the clay court season begins, so the clock is ticking, I hope he finds one soon!
Anyways depsite another shock loss for Murray, I'll keep tabs on how the Sony Ericsson Open is going with much interest, so it will be another interesting tournament and the WTA coverage starts again on Sunday for the tournament so more to follow then.
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