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12/19/08 3:21 AM | Jonathan Morgan
Andy Murray overcame his injury in mid-2007, returned to form that indoor season, and just missed out on making Shanghai. He sought out to make 2008 the best year yet.
Andy opened the season crushing the opposition in Doha. He scored a bagel a match for his first 3 rounds and looked sharp. Davydenko was no match in the semis as he went down tamely. Andy faced Wawrinka in the final in a fine match. Stanislas was the more tactically astute of the two, but Murray battled his way to a 3 set win and his first title of the year. This bumped his ranking up to 9th prior to the Australian.
Unfortunately for Murray, he drew Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the first round. Tsonga would end up being that year’s Aussie Cinderella, making the finals. Murray lost to Tsonga in 4 well-played sets before Jo ripped through the draw.
The Brits had a Davis Cup away tie against Argentina on clay. It was a certain loss waiting to happen, but Murray pulled out of the tie just prior, citing a knee injury. He would get a lot of criticism for this supposedly “cowardly” move. He was back in Marseille a week later though, and didn’t look any the worse for wear.
Murray played Wawrinka in the second round in Marseille, a rematch of the Doha final. Murray came close to losing and neither player looked totally comfortable out there. 12 total breaks of serve and a 6-1 third set saw Andy just edging it out. Murray played well in the next round against Mahut, especially on the crucial points. Andy would go on and sweep aside both Mathieu and Ancic to take the title. This win got him back to #10 in the ranks, and he was 10-1 on the season.
Andy played Rotterdam the following week but lost to Robin Haase, the best Dutch player on tour. Murray seemed a bit loose and overpowered in this match as Robin really took it to him. He put that loss out of his mind rather quickly as he headed to Dubai next. Due to an extremely stacked Dubai draw, Murray, at #12 in the rankings, was draw to face Roger Federer in the first round. Murray won his second match over Roger by beating him in 3 sets.
After the match, Roger had some things to say about Andy:
“He tends to wait a lot for the mistake of the opponent.”
“He stands way far behind on the court and that means you’ve got to do a lot of running.”
These comments were not malicious in any way, but its clear how some could misinterpret it as a diss of Murray’s game. After beating Federer, he had a lull match against Verdasco, but pulled through in 3 sets. Davydenko kicked him out the tournament in the quarters as Murray’s passive style reared its ugly head again.
Murray came into Indian Wells shaky. Andy beat Jurgen Melzer in 3 sets in the first round with some patchy play and just snuck past Karlovic in 3. He broke Ivo’s serve 4 times, but let Karlovic break him 3 times as well. He faced Tommy Haas in an Indian Wells rematch in the 4th round. Murray was extremely inconsistent in this match after blitzing to the first set 6-2. Haas’ game was really on point in the last two sets while Andy was disappointing. He didn’t fare much better then next week in Miami either, losing to Ancic in his first match. Murray was up a break in the third set and double faulted while holding match point. It was ugly all around.
These losses dropped him down to 22 in the rankings, but with pretty much nothing to defend for 6 months, his ranking could go nowhere but up. Murray also enlisted the aid of Alex Corretja to coach him during the clay season. In Monte Carlo he struggled past Lopez but destroyed Volandri. Andy played Djokovic in the quarterfinals, but the Serb bagelled him and kicked him to the curb.
In Barcelona he lost again to Ancic, dropping serve at 4-5 in both sets, including a double fault on match point. Murray’s clay game looked average at the very best. Murray played Argentina’s Juan Martin Del Potro in Rome’s opening round. It was a fine match from both until Del Potro had to retire early in the third with a back injury. Both men seemed to be spewing bad blood during the match and Murray remarked later that Del Potro had insulted his mother during the match. Andy wound up losing to Wawrinka in the 2nd round as the Swiss really gave Andy a lesson on the clay.
In Hamburg, Andy got a little bit of swagger back, beating out the human kamikaze Tursunov as well as outsmarting Simon. Rough luck for Andy in the third round though, as he faced Nadal. By reaching the third round, Andy got his ranking back up to 11th ahead of Roland Garros. French wildcard Jonathan Eysseric took him to 5 sets in the first round but Murray pulled it out in the end. Andy scored a solid win over Acasuso in the next round before Almagro took him out in 4. Murray played very well in the Almagro match and looked like he had finally figured out some semblance of a clay game.
The grass season awaited, however, and Murray was in Queen’s to kick it off. Grosjean had to retire in the first round before Murray went 3 sets with the talented Latvian, Ernests Gulbis. Murray fought back to take the match but was looking a but injured at many times in the match. He fell and looked to hurt both his neck and thumb. Andy pulled out his quarterfinal with Roddick, certainly to reserve himself and be 100% sure of his Wimbledon participation, especially after 2007.
Murray’s 2008 Wimbledon was his best slam yet as he really took his game to the next level at this event. Murray looked stunning as he beat Santoro and Malisse in straights. Tommy Haas awaited in the third round. After a very competitive first 2 sets, Andy turned it on in the third and fourth to take the match. His 4th round match with Gasquet turned him into a man. Richard had made the semifinals the previous year and was looking good. Gasquet took the first two sets and was about to run away with the match before Murray scratched and clawed his way back in. Andy eventually won the match in 5 insane sets to reach the quarterfinals. Like in Hamburg, Nadal destroyed him, but Murray’s game was reaching higher and higher levels. His rank was up to 9th.
He came back in Toronto and was playing great. Tojo was no match in the 2nd round but against Wawrinka he had to win it again in 3 sets. Something about Stan just seems to make Murray’s game inconsistent and easy to dissect. Like previous matches though, Andy gutted it out in 3. Murray kicked the defending champ Djokovic out of the tournament in the quarterfinals with some stunningly aggressive play. He again lost to Nadal, but played a fine match and was getting closer and close to beating the Spaniard.
Murray came back the following week to storm to the title in Cincinnati. He dropped just one set en route to the title, beat Karlovic without a tiebreak, and took care of business against Djokovic in the finals. Murray was now #6 in the world. The Olympics were something to forget for Murray as he played terribly against Lu in the opening round to lose. He quickly erased that result from his mind as he went into the US Open as a legit contender for the title.
He was in trouble against Llodra in the 2nd round but pulled through in 4, then Melzer took the first two sets before Murray clawed back to win in 5. Andy followed that up with an easy win over Wawrinka and a 4 set battle with Del Potro. Murray faced Nadal in the semifinals in a match that wound up going over 2 days. On Saturday, Murray won the first two sets on a windy and rainy day. Nadal was looking flustered out there and not himself. Rafael came back to win the third and went up a break in the 4th. Murray fought back though, winning the match in 4 and reaching his first slam final. Federer destroyed him in the final, but Andy had jumped to his career high rank of 4.
After a failed attempt to get the Brits back into the World Group, Murray had his best indoor season ever. He stormed to the title in Madrid, beating Federer in the semis and dropping just a single set. Andy backed this up by defending his title in St. Petersburg, doing so without dropping a set. Murray was on fire. He finally lost to Nalbandian in the quarterfinals of Paris, stopping Murray’s crazy 27-1 set streak.
In Shanghai, Murray beat both Roddick and Simon and was already qualified to advance to the semifinals before he played Federer. Murray took the time to battle Federer and took the match 7-5 in the third, nearly a carbon copy of their Madrid match. Federer would miss out on the semis, while Murray paid the price. Andy lost to Davydenko in the semifinals, showing clear signs of fatigue in the match after a 3 hour long affair with Federer.
He ended the season on an absolute tear, going 35-6 after pulling out of Queen’s against Roddick. Murray ended the season ranked #4, his best season yet. Andy will look to notch his first slam title in 2009, and has a great chance to do so.
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As I promised, I read this one too. Fair enoguh. The Shanghai "clear fatigue" I would address a little bit differently: lack of fitness. A player should be able to keep up his game during a tourney. Fatigue could be an issue for the long period of play, like a season.
Djokovic beat Roddick, Nadal and Federer in Montreal'07, all within three days! No fatigue there. Nalbandian did the same thing , beat top three players in three days in Paris '07. No fatigue.
And again, I would say that Kolya played well as the reason why Murr was ousted of Shanghai. Kolya has to be given credits for that one. The victory was cristal clear, in 2 sets, and with no absolute chance for Murray to be a real threat. Murray's loss can better fit his lack of skills and fitness.
If you run from side to side to too much (like Murr) to make up for your skills, then you must tire. Federer never had fitness problem. Because he runs only when he has to. The rest he use his skills to save him too much runnings.
Universon , 12/19/08 5:35 AM