Andy Murray’s run-up to the US Open

After a good tournament in Cincinnati is it Murray’s time to win his first Major?

Andy Murray is looking to win his first Major title in Flushing Meadows this year. After three disappointing finals in Grand Slams Murray believes that he has learned from those misused opportunities.

Murray finished off Wimbledon by losing to Rafael Nadal in the semis, another decent Wimbledon appearance for the Scot. Murray felt disappointed after a “tough” four set match. He admitted that he “needed to work harder” and “work on his professionalism”.

He then decided to play for Great Britain against Luxembourg to the delight of British tennis fans. He demolished Laurent Bram to achieve his first ever triple bagel allowing the man than doesn’t even have an ATP Ranking only 15 points. He also beat Gilles Muller with ease and won the doubles with brother, Jamie.

After Davis Cup success he moved out to the US to Miami and had his hard-earned rest until the American hard court swing.

The Scot’s first opportunity to impress came at the hands of big serving South African Kevin Anderson who was having the year of his life. Murray started the match sluggishly after a lack of match fitness and Anderson was playing world class tennis. Murray was a step slow throughout the entire match and was beaten comfortably by the 32^nd seed, 6-3 6-1. A disappointing attempt at becoming the first man in history to win the Rogers Cup three years running.

He spent the rest of the week training making sure that he was completely match fit for Cincinnati.

Cincinnati is always a very important tournament for the Scot as it was the first Masters tournament that he won. This year he said he was “trying to conserve his energy so that he could come into the US Open in “optimum condition and form”. His first match was against David Nalbandian. The Argentine was certainly a potential danger to the Brit but Andy Murray likes to play against him and he overcame a potentially tricky hurdle in straight sets. Andy’s third round match would be against Alex Bogomolov Jr who managed to deter Murray from meeting Jo-Wilfred Tsonga with a great victory of the Frenchman. Murray bulldozed through him to reach the quarters.

He was then faced with his first real challenge of the competition. This obstacle came in the shape of 10^th seed Gilles Simon who has been creeping back up the rankings after slipping down them because of an injury.

The Frenchman was in good form leading into the match but the first set was a cagy affair but Murray came through it 6-3. He then pushed it up a gear and confidently put Simon away in the second 6-3.

Murray went into the semi-final favourite against Mardy Fish but only just about. Fish had a terrific lead up to the match with a win at Atlanta and finals at Los Angeles and Montréal where he pushed Novak Djokovic to the end in a thrilling final.

Murray looked in control of Mardy Fish who was slightly out of sorts and won the first set 6-3. The second set was tough and was much tighter with both men breaking each other to send the set to a tie-break. Fish was looking in control of it with the mini break but Murray clawed his way back. When the tie-break score was at 8-7 Murray thought he had done it. The ball seemed to cling on to the outside of the line.

Murray gave a fist pump and the umpire said the final words. “Game, Set, Match Murray”. But, Fish challenged and the result was that the ball was out by a few millimetres. Murray eventually managed to scrape the tiebreak 10-8 to make his way to the final of Cincinnati to face Novak Djokovic for a rematch of the 2008 final against the World No1 who had lost only once this year.

Murray went into the match in reasonably good form but knew that he would have to play better in the final against the man who already had 57 wins under his belt. The Brit started the match quickly looking to attack Djokovic. Murray took advantage of a slow starting Serbian to break early and advance 3-0 lead in the opening set.

Djokovic picked up his game though and fought back to get to 3-3 in the opener. Everyone thought that Novak would now be ruthless and take out Murray but Murray kept strong and broke Djokovic again. It was the first time we saw a sign of the Serb in any pain. His serves were slow and not penetrating. The Scot went on to win the first set 6-4.

The second set didn’t last very long. Djokovic was giving Murray errors due to his lack of power because of his shoulder injury and Murray led Djokovic 3-0 before the Serb said enough was enough and retired from the match. It was Murray’s second tournament win of the year and first Master’s tournament.

Murray wanted to have a week without complications so he could come into the US Open feeling good. But that would be too good to be true. Earthquake and Hurricane struck and Murray stayed indoors for most of the week. John McEnroe said leading up to the 2011 US Open that “this is the best opportunity he is ever going to get”. He believes this because Djokovic has a slight shoulder problem and was suffering from fatigue, Nadal had poor performances in Montréal and Cincinnati and Federer to. Murray dismissed the claims, “It's a silly thing to say. It will be Federer is not playing well and Rafa is struggling and Djokovic's shoulder is sore. But I know come Monday they'll all be fine,”

Murray is looking forward to the final major of the year. Murray has a descent draw and he is in the same half of the draw as Rafael Nadal. His first match is Wednesday against India’s number 1, Somdev Devarrman. Is this Andy’s year?

Has the serve taken control of the game?

Has the serve taken away the fun in men’s tennis?

Without any doubt, today, the serve is one of the most important shots in Tennis. Has the increase in the importance of the serve been a benefit for Tennis or has it taken away its fun?

Every player in the top 10 of the world today has a big serve. It is a huge weapon. This serve carries them through in matches when maybe the other components of their game are lacking authority.

Now think to the women’s game. Most women lack the same amount of power as the men. Hence their serve is nowhere near as powerful as the men’s. To prove this the fastest ever serve by a women was 129 mph whereas the fastest by a man was 156 mph.

Now think how many more upsets are there in the women’s game rather than in the men’s.

In the women’s game since 2006 there have been 11 different winners of grand slams but in the men’s game since 2006 there have only been 4 different winners. What sounds more exciting? If you look at those four they all had big serves but in the women’s game 6 out of those 11 had average serves.

So that proves that the slower the serve the more chance of an upset which makes everything more fun.

Let’s have a look at Ivo Karlovic. The 6 foot 8, huge serving Croatian is starting to get a bit older now (32) but no-one believes he is anywhere near retiring and why should he. As long as his shoulder keeps going he can keep serving himself into the top 100 easily.

Karlovic, no disrespect to him, has no other assets apart from his serve. But because nobody can break him he will almost always hold his serve.

Now surely that’s just boring. Thanks to the development of the rackets they are feeding this type of playing meaning a lack of exciting tennis in some people’s opinion.

On the other hand the Serve is a skill in tennis and if you have mastered it then why shouldn’t you be rewarded? Karlovic has mastered the serve and should now get the rewards. 

People have different solutions to this “problem”. Some say change the rules. John McEnroe a few years ago said to make the service box smaller others say change the foot fault law, make sure the players have one foot on the ground at all times during the serve and others even going to the extent of bringing the game back to small wooden rackets! What’s your view on it?     

Has technology ruined Tennis?

As players generate spin that consistently leaves the ball above the opponents head has technology ruined the game?

Today it is rare to see a rally that goes beyond 15 shots but it wasn’t always that way.

Think back to the old days where precision and training to become the best tennis player you could be earned you the No1 spot in tennis.

Now fast forward a few years. Rafael Nadal hits a forehand that has 4,900 revolutions per minute which brings the tennis ball above a 6 foot 5 giant (which is common to see in modern day tennis).

Today power, speed and athleticism brings you to the summit of men’s tennis. Many would say this is a good thing. Today you have to be at your peak fitness to compete in a painfully long season which lasts for 11 out of the 12 months. Try and imagine a 37 year old Jimmy Connors winning an ATP World Tour event today.

The evolution of the tennis racket is the main reason to the development of the sport. In the past when the wooden tennis racket was the player’s weapon, the racket head size was a mere 65 sq. inches compared to todays 120 sq. inches. The larger the head size the more forgiving the shot also meaning the more power allowed hitting the ball.

Because of this change players now have to hit with more power or else they will be left behind and precision has taken a back seat. Also because of this change players have to be fitter or else they will not be able to maintain the same power as the fitter guys with more stamina.

This has also made it harder to compete if you are a bit older. For example peak fitness can start do decrease in your late twenties and if you’re not at peak fitness then it is difficult to compete at the top of the men’s game.

 

That is also why during the time of Jimmy Connors he could keep himself rite at the top because it was more about precision and accuracy more than fitness and strength and as long as you still had that “touch” you could be a force in Tennis.

So what’s next for tennis? Will it continue to evolve? Or will the tennis authorities say that enough is enough and that the game is becoming unfair? One thing that is certain is that if the game continues to evolve there will definitely be people that are willing to evolve with it.