Right OK well I thought I do a slightly different (well actually in a way its not!) themed post as this one will cover Andy Murray's most recent progress on the tour as he came back to the ATP tour at the Shenzhen open in China last week so I'll have a look at how he has done and what it could lead to for him in the future.
Soooooooo starting with Andy's first match in Shenzhen, he played the Indian player, Somdar Devarrman who gave Andy a decent workout but in the end the Scot had a bit too much for the Indian players to handle and it saw Andy reach the quarter finals with a 6-3, 6-3 win. In the quarter finals Andy then faced Luckas Lacko of the Slovak republic who provided Andy with a fairly testing encounter but again Andy managed to dig in and break the Slovak in the first and second sets to take him to only his third semi final of the season with a 6-3, 7-5 result. In the semi final Andy faced a tough opponent in Juan Monaco, a former top ten player himself as Andy got off to a sluggish start and Monaco took full advantage with a double break to grab the first set. In the 2nd set however, Andy went up a break but soon squandered it as Monaco broke back and at 3-3 things hung in the balance as Monaco had a break point at 30-40 on Andy's serve, but Andy managed to save it with a rare and potent 2nd serve and after this Andy raised his level and broke to take the 2nd set. In the decider however, Andy found another gear and Monaco had become powerless to do anything about Andy's sizzling form as he handed the Argentine a bagel set and with that Andy booked his first final of 2014 after a hard fought 2-6, 6-3, 6-0 victory.
Now onto the final itself which saw Andy up against the talented veteran 32 year old Spaniard, Tommy Robredo, who has enjoyed good form this year and already secured a win over Novak Djokovic in Cincinnati last month. And the match itself promised to be a tough one for Andy and it certainly was that as the first set saw both men trade breaks of serve, but it was Robredo who made the move to go ahead 6-5 and with that secure the first set. In the 2nd set the audience were treated to some thrilling points from both men and Andy went up a break early to go 4-2 only to squander it again and let Robredo back in the door and back on serve. Play then became very tense between the two men as Andy secured two set points at 5-4, but Robredo saved them and play went on into a dramatic and thrilling tiebreak, which saw Andy miraculously save five match points, coming back from a 6-2 deficit to eventually claim the second set on the breaker 11-9. And in the 3rd set, Robredo's challenge started to finally fade as fatigue overtook him in the sweltering hot and humid conditions and Andy broke the Spaniard three times to grab his first title of 2014 and first since his triumph at Wimbledon last year, with a 5-7, 7-6 (11-9), 6-1 result.
Well to say that Andy needed to win this title is something of an understatement as he desparately needed somehow to get back in the winners circle and clearly that's why he chose to enter Shenzhen as he must have looked at the draw and figured it was quite favourable for his chances as the field of players suited his game and had decent head to heads over most of the players there. And this win will no doubt give Andy much confidence moving ahead into the rest of the Asian hard court swing, as he still has Beijing and Shanghai to play yet and as he was out with back surgery this time last year he stands to make up plenty of points in hope that he will qualify for ATP world tour finals at London in November. And Andy currently sits at 10th place in the rankings for the race to London so he needs to move up two more spots to 8th place to qualify.
As for the match itself it was a bit erratic in terms of the quality of the play but overall it was a very entertaining contest and both men produced some terrific points together with the 2nd set tiebreak in particular being the highlight of the match. And in that tiebreak we saw some true shades of the Wimbledon champion of last year and we have seen moments of it here and there this season but in that tiebreak we saw a level of grit and determination from Andy Murray that has been missing for most of 2014. And it actually echoed Andy's 3rd set tiebreak against Federer in the Australian open earlier this year where he saved two match points in the breaker to go ahead and reel off four straight points to win the 3rd set. It also even reminded me of Andy's defeat to Novak Djokovic in their superb Shanghai final two years ago when Andy had five match points and it was Nole that saved them all and went on to win, but its good to see Andy is on the flipside of the coin this time. And I myself knew that this tournament was Andy's best shot at winning a title all year and we all know he has had many opportunities this season so far where he could have won a title but missed all those chances due to lack of stamina from his back surgery, lack of form, poor concentration or just a loss of confidence.
Yet Andy has even had moments this year especially at Wimbledon where he looked every inch the champion for the first four rounds there but then inexplicably fell to pieces in his quarter final match against Grigor Dimitrov, which was pretty much the match that has brought him directly to the place he is at now in falling out of the top ten as prior to that he had gained valuable points at the French open which helped his ranking bump up to No.5. And on a similar note a funny thing about the Shenzhen final was that due to the intense heat Andy had to abandon his usual dark grey adidas kit and wear his white Wimbledon kit for the match, so at least this time round it played its part in helping him win a title! And another neat coincidence in the match was the umpire, the colourful Mohammed Layani, was also the umpire of the Wimbledon final last year aswell, so he must have served as a good omen for Andy here in securing his victory (sorry about the pun!).
But despite Shenzhen being a small tournament it is still nonetheless a very important one for Andy in terms of his season and with it hopefully he can build on his form to finish the year strong. It also proves that Andy is still a vital player aswell and that he isn't ready to go away yet and similar to Roger Federer, Andy is a player that you write off at your peril because the bottom line is that he is too good to keep down permanently. And after the end of match Andy was quite emotional as he sank exhausted with relief into his chair and sobbed into his towel, which showed that he had lifted yet another heavy burden after going 14 months without a single title to his name. So Andy deserves nothing but credit for pulling off this win and as for Robredo well you have to feel for him as he too was upset after the end of the match especially after he realised how close he was to winning his first title also in over a year. This result will also hopefully help allay the question marks over Andy's decision to hire Amelie Mauresmo as his coach, whom no doubt will be delighted that he has won his first title since they began their parternship even though she wasn't even there to witness it! But then again Mauresmo has only committed to so many weeks on the tour throughout the season with Andy so she can't make it to every event he plays, regardless however I'm sure she will be very pleased with the result. And despite the disappointment that Andy has had to deal with so far this season, overall he hasn't had a bad year if you look at his results as he has reached three quarter finals and a semi final at the majors, he has also beaten a top 10 player in Tsonga and now he has won his first title of the season as well so things are definitely looking up.
So next up for Andy is the China open this week in Beijing where he will join Novak Djokovic and Rafa Nadal, who makes his return to the tour this week after being laid off with a wrist injury. However Andy has a pretty unkind draw as his first opponent is a literally a big test as he takes on the big bean Pole, Jerzy Janowicz, who is an unenviable opponent for any player at the best of times! However Janowicz hasn't been at his best this season and has been very up and down so far in 2014, so it might give Andy a chance to win if the big guy is off his game, but if the Pole is on his game then Andy might be in real danger of an early exit in Beijing, so he will need to play a good match if he is to win. And if Andy does win the match his draw gets tougher by the minute as he could go on to potentially face the reigning US Open champion, Marin Cilic in the quarter finals, followed by a possible clash with Novak in the semis and Rafa in the final. Personally though I think it will be a real struggle for Andy to secure back to back wins in Shenzhen and Beijing given the strength of the field of players at Beijing and Andy still has to work on his inconsistent form (not to mention that serve has always been his undoing!). But regardless of his outcome in Beijing this week, there is no doubt that Andy is starting to move in the right direction and despite his dips in form he is beginning to show signs of being that player who just over a year ago triumphed at SW19 and that he still has that hunger and determination to win and get back to the top.
Right so that's it for now and once again I'll say congrats to Andy Murray for winning his first title in nearly 15 months after that historic victory at Wimbledon last year, and after his first week in China he has show he is far from done and hopefully there will be more titles yet to come for him.
And with that I shall leave yee there and be back again some time soon with more posts on that sport with the net and a fluffy yellow ball.
Until the next un bye for now!
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