Well might as well start off with another tennis post about something that could well be a concern for a certain player, who just happens to the British No.1 (or so it appears!) Andy Murray, and his grass court season so far has gone far from swimmingly, so here's my thoughts on that.
Starting with Andy at the AEGON Championships at Queens club, he was the defending champion, but he went out in his first match to Nicholas Mahut, albeit in a tight 3 set battle. After that Andy went on to take more time to prepare for his grass court season and entered an exhibition tournament, The Boodles Challenge at Stoke Park. This of course would be quite a challenge for any player, as it featured the creme de la creme of the tennis playing world, with so many top players such as Djokovic, Del Potro, Isner, Tipsarevic, Wawrinka and Dolgpolov playing. Andy played his first match against Janko Tipsarevic, who is now a well established top 10 player, so naturally it would be a tough match, and it proved to be just that. To be fair to Andy it was a close match as both players took a set, and played a decisive tiebreak (first to 10), but it was Tipsy that edged it as he closed out the match, winning in 6-7, 6-4, 10-7. So there is no great disgrace in losing out to a player of the calibre of Tipsarevic and it would be tough playing against anyone in the top 10. After this Andy was scheduled to play the World No.1, Novak Djokovic, which was today, after a rain delay, the two went out on court, but it was Djoko that played the better tennis, breaking Andy once in the 1st set, and twice in the 2nd set (after Andy broke back to make it 4-4, Djoko broke again) to win the match in convincing style with a 6-4, 6-4 victory.
On the face of it there was nothing too disgraceful about Andy's defeats, and you wouldn't expect him to beat Djokovic who was on good form today, and his previous matches with Mahut and Tipsarevic were both very close. However it is a worrying sign that Andy keeps losing these matches, and not holding his serve at the crucial points, and that is something we have seen too much already this year where he has had his serve broken, or if he converts a break, he can't hold onto to it. So it does raise concerns over his chances at Wimbledon, and is it good for him to go into SW19 having not won a single match on grass? Possibly not, but at the same time there have been plenty of top players that have gone out in the first round of Queens, one of them being Tim Henman, who reached the Wimbledon semi finals four times in his career, which is in itself impressive.
However Andy no doubt will just see these matches as preparation for next week, and he will be less worried about the results, win or lose, its just practice, which is fair enough. But there is still that concern that Andy will drag his bad habits into Wimbledon, including poor serving, converting break points then failing to hold onto breaks, dropping serve all the time, and making a strew of unforced errors, but they come part and parcel with his game, so they will crop up, as they do in every player (with varying degrees!). For the last three years, Andy has played very well at Wimbledon, reaching the semi finals, despite losing to Roddick in 2009, and Rafa in the past two years, but will he be able to keep it up this time???? Well that's the million dollar question, will he??? Or will he just go out in the first round, which he could even be in danger of doing if he plays bad enough. Its only a theory just now, but there is that worrying possibility that it could become a reality.
And if Andy does go out early on in Wimbledon, whether it be the first, second or third round, then it will raise even further questions about his new working relationship with Ivan Lendl. And that's another key question, will Lendl be good for Andy in the long run??? Well if he loses early on in Wimbledon, I think it would be a clear indicator that Lendl won't be good for Andy in the long term, as this time last year, he was having the best season so far of his career, not to mention the most consistent season in the grand slams, reaching all four semi finals in 2011. And it really makes you wonder if Andy really needed a full time coach like Lendl to come along, in theory and on paper it sounded great, and for the first couple of months it looked promising, but since then it has backfired somewhat. And prior to Lendl's appointment as coach, Andy was playing some great tennis without his help, so it makes you wonder if he is really necessary. Time will tell on that one I guess.
However so far this year Andy has far from disgraced himself in the slams, having reached the semi finals at the Australian Open and the quarter finals at the French Open, which are fine results in themselves. But the question remains can he ramp it up at Wimbledon this year??? It looks doubtful, but for all I know, he could stun everyone and win the title, as Mats Wilander, the former French open champion once said, the tennis is there, and the ability to win the majors is somewhere within him, its just a matter of finding it. But of course other experts such as Andre Agassi, former Wimbledon champion, have pointed out that Andy is just cursed to playing in a golden age of tennis, when there are 3 of the greatest players to have played the sport, who are just dominating the game in Djoko, Fed and Rafa, and they are making it much tougher for him to achieve his goals.
And then there is the Olympics as well, which is also being held on the grass courts at Wimbledon, at the end of July. There again the top 3 guys in the game will also compete with Andy for the right to earn the Olympic gold medal, which is something Djokovic is desperate to achieve, along with winning the French Open, which he failed to do. And in that respect it would be great that if Andy didn't win Wimbledon (which he most likely won't) that he went on to win the Olympic gold medal, just to prove to those other three guys that he can take one of the ultimate prizes and do it on his home soil, and for once its not the top 3 that win something really important in their sport.
However from here, it all looks like a bit of a pipe dream for Andy Murray, and he will have to work very hard and up his game considerably from what it has been so far for the most of this year for him to get anywhere near lifting that much needed slam or claiming the Olympic gold. Its not impossible for him to achieve, but it will be extremely difficult, and with those 3 guys in his way, along with the rising competition below him, it doesn't get any easier.
And the Wimbledon draw has now been announced and it isn't the kindest by any means for Andy, as he will face Nikolai Davydenko in the first round, which will be a real tough opener, although Andy has won the last five of their nine meetings so hopefully he will win. But after that it doesn't get any easier as Andy may face giant and giant serving Ivo Karlovich in 2nd round, then possibly the giant Kevin Anderson in the 3rd, and maybe Milos Raonic or Marin Cilic in the 4th round, so that's potentially three big hitters in a row, all of them dangerous, so Andy will need to be really on his game in order to progress to the later stages, and it makes you wonder if someone in the tournament organisation doesn't want Andy to win this year, by giving him such a brutal draw! But its funny how in contrast that Roger Federer has a relatively easy draw with only John Isner to threaten him as a potential quarter final opponent, and at Wimbledon I can't quite see big man upsetting Fed. Djokovic also has a fairly decent draw as well with only one or two players that might give him some trouble, with Berdych most likely being his first real test in the quarter finals.
But whichever way it goes for the Muzza, I wish him the best of luck for SW19 and the Olympics, and I personally don't think we will see an early exit from him at Wimbledon, but don't quote me on that! ;-) And judging by his latest BBC column entry, he is raring to go and hungry to go as deep as he can into Wimbledon, and here's hoping he can, and dispel fears about a possible early exit. And we have to remember its his home slam, he has the crowd on his side and he can draw from that, and fingers crossed that he does.
Oh and as a quick update, I was really chuffed to see the unseeded player, Tamira Paszek, triumph at the AEGON International event at Eastbourne this weekend, as against all odds she beat the favourite, Angelique Keber, and current World No.8, to win the title. After being a set down, Tamira battled back to level the match, and saved 5 match points, before getting 3 of her own, she pulled off a great win to grab her first WTA Premier level event, with a 5-7, 6-3, 7-5 win, and its remarkable to think prior to this event she had only won two matches all year! So well done, its great to see the underdog come through for a change, and Tamira Paszek thoroughly deserves her win this week. The same goes to Andy Roddick, who has been going into decline in recent times, bounced back brilliantly as he reached the final of the ATP Eastbourne event and defeated Andreas Seppi in convincing fashion, with a straight sets win of 6-3, 6-2. This was his first title in well over a year and a half, so well done to Roddick, and here's hoping he does well at Wimbledon.
And on that note I will leave it there!
No comments:
Post a Comment