Andy Battles Through But Needs To Improve
The Wimbledon organisers were like children with a new toy at Christmas. And they’d remembered to buy the batteries. Dinara Safina claimed the all important pub quiz trivia of claiming the first win under the new roof, but it was what followed that gave Wimbledon the outcome to fully justify their decision to belatedly join the 21st century.

In the past, added Murray and Warwinka might be hauling their weary bones out of bed for the lunchtime conclusion of a forgone conclusion, but the roof gave the audience a spectacle to follow right through to its yawny end. The roof added novelty, but also made every shot sound like a bullet being fired in a spaghetti western. All that was missing was Clint Eastwood growling “step inside my service box and say that.” The shots echoed around the ensconced arena and gave it another layer of drama.

It wasn’t epic. It was marathon, but not epic. There were far too many mistakes and too few flashes of brilliance to be labelled epic. Whilst Murray must be applauded for his stamina and mental strength, it exposed the fact he needs to step up another couple of levels to still have an active interest by Sunday afternoon. His opponent is a steady but limited player. He is solid, but firstly failed to spot when the winners were on and when he finally decided to go for the jugular, ended up limply finding the torso. The world rankings suggested their was a gap in class and Murray was expected to win, yet Wawrinka didn’t do a great deal to bridge this gap. Worryingly, not doing a great deal was enough to take Andy Murray all the way.

Murray immodestly declared that he earned an ‘A’ for his first week in SW19 but beyond the soundbite nature of such a comment, it suggested he was a little too happy with his game. There is always room for improvement and as happy as he might have been with his trouble-free navigation through the opening week, Murray must aspire to operate at a higher level constantly. The clash with Wawrinka made this apparent and could be the smelling salts he needs to bring him back to reality. Never being one to let a victory get in the way of a good excuse, Murray was quick to cite the roof as the reason why he laboured over a player he is considered far superior to – despite the fact it’s a regular occurrence in the ATP calendar at events less reluctant to maintain outdated traditions. Serving into bright lights in a sweaty arena is nothing new, even if the grass underfoot is a novel sensation.

The uncomfortable truth is – based on last night’s evidence - Murray wasn’t good enough to beat Roger Federer. Putting aside the heroic nature of the performance, it was a C in comparison to the kid who’s top of the class. If the top seeds meet on Sunday, Murray will need to improve dramatically to even make it a contest. Murray is good enough to win Wimbledon but whilst the exceptional talents of Federer and Nadal are on the scene, his chances will be limited. Allied to that are the worries about Murray’s second-week stamina. To date, his tournament wins have been done in shorter Masters events that last little over a week and is was noticeable how shattered he looked towards the end of the match. On the more tactical side of things, he needs to work on his challenges. Towards the end he wasted his on a series of fruitless appeals that must have been a cumulative couple of feet wrong. It nearly cost him when some far more moot calls were made near the finish.

Murray can end the long wait, but he needs to improve rapidly to make the grade.

Wimbledon Betting
Murray v Ferrero Betting

This entry was posted on 10:30am Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 at 10:30 am and is filed under Sportsbook, Tennis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. By commenting on this site you agree to abide by our terms and conditions.

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