Andy Murray v Dustin Brown, Friday, Time: TBA - Discuss the match

Murray stays cool amidst inferno

By Andrew Hunter on September 01, 2010, 08:11 PM | 19 comments » add comment
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Andy Murray avoided any sort of drama whatsoever, when he advanced comfortably past Lukas Lacko to the score of 6-3 6-2 6-2

The British number one turned in an impressive performance, in the sweltering afternoon heat to book a second round meeting with the Jamaican, Dustin Brown.

Lacko was somewhat of an unknown quantity coming into todays match, with these two having last played against each other in the juniors. However, Murray was sufficiently quick out of the blocks to build a lead, and he avoided any lapses in concentration to stay ahead. The extreme heat saw Victoria Azarenka pass out earlier in the day, and many could have expected a lethargic performance from Murray. It could not have been further from the truth, as the Scot quickly found his range and showed superior touch and feel around the court, as well as some explosive movement. After a quite frankly embarrassing overhead attempt which almost struck the back wall, Murray regained his composure quickly to capture set number one.

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Breaks were exchanged at the start of the second set. There was a palpable sense, that Lacko was starting to realise raw aggression was his best chance of hurting Murray. Even this gung-ho style of play wasn't yielding much success, and Murray broke once more to regain control of the match. The fourth seed was evidently not in top form, but was being clinical enough to ensure minimal court time. A blistering service hold was more than enough to get Murray to a two set advantage.

Lacko has never recovered from a two set deficit, and by the start of the third set, there was little self-belief flowing within the Slovak. Murray was in cruise control, and despite Lacko making some inroads, the Briton always looked comfortable and aggressive at the right moments to stave Lacko off. Murray broke serve to fifteen, and then held to ease through.

All in all, it was a pleasing match for the Murray camp, a match with plenty of different and lengthy rallies, allowing Murray to fine-tune certain components of his game, without expending too much energy, in temperatures pushing over one hundred degrees.

Another positive piece of news reached Murray in the form of Tomas Berdych crashing to defeat, in straight sets. The Czech has had a superb 2010 season, and looked likely to be a potential opponent in the quarter-finals, but was not able to overcome the tricky Michael Llodra.

Predictions from the newsdesk

By Andrew Hunter on August 29, 2010, 06:20 PM | 41 comments » add comment
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Some of MurraysWorld's news team have offered their insight as to how the US Open will transpire.

Ally

A new Andy Murray will enter the fray at Flushing Meadows this year. Since his dismal French Open display, he has picked up a new aggressive gameplan. Murray has reached the quarter-finals at the Cincinnati 1000 and won the Toronto 1000 since leaving coach Miles Maclagan. Particularly against Nadal in Toronto, Murray was spotting all the angles, coming in and seizing control of rallies at the first opportunity. He once more emerged as one of the tour’s best players on US hard courts.

Therefore, he has a huge chance at the US Open. If Murray can turn over tricky potential opponents such as Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka, clay-court favouring Spaniard Nicolas Almagro, and in-form Czech Tomas Berdych, the meat of the tournament then starts. It’s Nadal in the semis, then Federer in the final.

Murray can unsettle Federer by gaining initiative early in rallies and keeping his service holds short. If he stands tall and fights as opposed to waiting to trip Federer up, Murray can win this. However, world number three Federer has to be favourite to win the tournament. He has a faultless psyche and simply does not choke. His experience of winning 5 times in New York is better than any kind of form or clever game.

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Favourites: Federer, Nadal, Murray

Outsiders: Novak Djokovic, Nikolay Davydenko,

Dark Horses: Robin Soderling, Tomas Berdych, Mardy Fish, Andy Roddick

Looking for an upset: Sergiy Stakhovsky, Ernests Gulbis, John Isner, Sam Querrey

James

Despite the wave of optimism that we invariably witness in the days preceding a hardcourt major, the eternal pessimist in me will believe Andy Murray can win the US Open the moment he holds the trophy aloft, and not a moment sooner. That is not to say that there is no cause for optimism. Murray's recent return to form, coupled with a more aggressive approach, means that he is likely good value for his standing amongst the favourites heading into the last major of the year.

The two major stumbling blocks for the Scot come in the form of Querrey and Berdych, both of whom hold recent victories over the world number 4. Should Murray clear those hurdles, I expect another Federer-Murray showdown in the final. Unfortunately, I expect the Swiss to come out on top again, albeit in a much tighter affair.

My pick: Federer

Upset of the tournament: Nadal to lose before the semi-finals.

Darkhorse of the tournament: Mardy Fish.

Murray given kind draw for Open

By Andrew Hunter on August 26, 2010, 08:05 PM | 39 comments » add comment
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Andy Murray can have no complaints, with the draw he has been dealt for the final grand slam of 2010.

The in-form Scot has a relatively comfortable passage into the second week, with Lukas Lacko, Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo and Stanislas Wawrinka the first three expected opponents.

Beyond that lies a potential re-match with home favourite Sam Querrey, and then perhaps Tomas Berdych. Both players have beaten Murray this year.

If he can make it that far, it is expected to be Rafael Nadal who will stand between the world number four and a second US Open final.

R1 > Lacko
R2 > Dustin Brown or Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo
R3 > possibly Wawrinka (seeded 25)
R4 > possibly Querrey (seeded 20) or Almagro (seeded 14)
QF > Berdych possibly
SF > Rafa or Verdasco (the highest seeds)
F > Federer (probably)

Murray praised by Gilbert for attacking style

By Mark Sanger on August 23, 2010, 03:55 PM | 31 comments » add comment
Brad Gilbert, arguably the best coach in the world, has hailed Andy Murray's new aggressive style as the last piece of the puzzle for his maiden Slam.

Gilbert, fan favourite, and ex-coach of the Scot, believes he has finally cracked how to implement aggressive play effectively into his game style, something the American pushed hard for while he coached Murray.

When I started coaching him almost five years ago he had this five-year plan that his game was going to blossom.

He felt it was going to happen at the Australian Open (where he was beaten by Roger Federer in the final in January). Everything was lined up and I think he had a hangover from that for about four or five months.

I think now finally that he's changed his game, he's finally over that and at 23 years old he is coming into his own and now it's just a matter of getting to the finish line but he really believes he can do it.


Gilbert continues
I have never seen Andy Murray play more positive and aggressive tennis than in Toronto. He did not rely on defence and it is so much more economical to play offensive tennis.

By nature he likes to play defensive, he can weave tangled webs and get out of it, but it's so much more enjoyable and fun to play offensive and win offensive and that's what he's doing and that's what he needs to do to win majors.


Gilbert made additional comments about Murray in a radio interview with the BBC, you can listen to that here.


In other news: Murray seeded fourth at US Open

Mardy Fish beats Andy Murray

By James MacDonald on August 20, 2010, 08:15 PM | 191 comments » add comment
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Andy Murray has lost in the quarter finals of the Cincinnati Masters 1000, finally falling to Mardy 'Suddenly I'm Playing Like a Grand Slam Champion' Fish 7-6, 1-6, 6-7.

There are no jokes, nor are there any puns today. The headline reflects the mood of the website, as we mourn yet another loss to Mardy 'The Second Coming of Stefan Edberg' Fish. Just watching today's match was tiring. However, Murray's body language throughout the contest left no room for us fans to speculate as to how he was coping with both the conditions and the cruel scheduling.

The Scot was suffering. In the grand scheme of things, this loss will likely benefit Murray. Having to endure another contest in the searing Cincy heat could have seriously dented his hopes of lifting the US Open trophy in 3 weeks time.

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There appeared to be a bit of needle between the two at the start of the contest, as they exchanged words at the net. Fish came out serving well, rarely giving Murray an opportunity to build any momentum. The world number 4 was similarly stingy on serve, despite a characteristically horrific first serve percentage.

The pair traded comfortable holds until 5-5, at which point the Scot both created and squandered multiple opportunties to break. The eventual tiebreak and its outcome appeared to be equally inevitable, yet despite Murray's less than stellar record in breakers this year, he somehow managed to edge out the American to clinch the first set.

It was at this point that the tide turned, however. Upon reentering the arena after a toilet break, Murray was hit with, in his own words, "a wall of heat". He suddenly began to struggle physically and was attended to by the ATP trainer on several occasions throughout what turned out to be a lopsided second set, which the American took 6-1.

Murray dug his heels in at the start of the third set and attempted to make a contest of it. Despite shuffling around like a zombie between points, the world number 4 managed to force a tiebreak. At one point Murray looked like he might pull off an unlikely win, as he raced to a 4-2 lead. Unfortunately, Fish benefited from a poor line call and pulled back the mini break. Buoyed by this, the American rallied to win 4 of the next 5 points to beat Murray for the third time this year.


Murray's post-match interview (1 video)
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brI1gJ_h-Yw" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brI1gJ_h-Yw</a>

Murray squeaks past Gulbis

By Andrew Hunter on August 19, 2010, 07:52 PM | 29 comments » add comment
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Andy Murray dug extremely deep to defeat Ernests Gulbis 4-6 6-3 7-6 and advance to the quarter-finals of the Cincinnati Masters.

Gulbis has undoubtedly progressed as a tennis player in 2010, and his swashbuckling, gung ho brand of tennis was always likely to pose problems to Murray, if Gulbis was able to land his punches. As expected, it was the youngster who assumed the dominant role in the rallies, hurting Murray on several occasions with his lethal forehand. The sheer heat and humidity in Ohio, coupled with the rapid court speed, meant that Murray was having to work incredibly hard just to stay in the points.

The Scot had no answers as they both came out of the blocks, and Gulbis raced to a double break and a 4-1 lead. Despite dropping serve, Gulbis remained calm and did not flinch a second time when serving for the set. Murray had played seven matches in the last eight days by this point, and it seemed plausible that perhaps the fourth seed was flagging physically.

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Britain's number one was missing the awe-inspiring repertoire of tricks and aggressive swagger that flowed through his veins in Toronto. Routine mid-court forehands were being dumped into the net, and halfway through the second set, Murray was staring right down the barrel of a straight sets defeat.

After seemingly berating himself verbally and punching his solar plexus for the 100th time, the Briton finally sparked into life somewhat, and managed to pressure Gulbis into some much sought after errors. The Latvian had been playing some stellar tennis, and Murray could consider himself somewhat fortunate to grab the second set.

Murray carved out a lead in the final set, but frustratingly, it was handed back immediately, and as the set grew older, Gulbis took the ascendancy, holding more comfortably as his more illustrious opponent struggled to fend off break points. Murray's groundstrokes were functioning rather poorly, but there was no question that his dogmatic attitude and will to win was carrying him through to the tie-break.

And, with the tie-break came the surprisingly predictable renaissance from Murray. He upped the length on his groundstrokes and remained watertight to build a 6-1 lead, and after a few loose points, sealed the victory, and a hard fought victory at that.

The American wild-card, Mardy Fish will await Murray in the quarter-finals. Fish disposed of Richard Gasquet earlier today in straight sets.

Chardy out-fails Murray

By Phil Messenger on August 18, 2010, 10:21 PM | 24 comments » add comment
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Andy Murray was eventually victorious in a staggeringly poor quality second round match against Jeremy Chardy. The Scot spurned multiple breaks to edge out a 6-3 6-7 6-2 victory in a little over two hours.

Murray started the match brightly enough, cantering through the first set with the loss of just three service points. Unfotunately, second set slumps against lesser players are becoming something of a theme in Murray's early round encounters. This match was to be no exception. The pair exchanged service holds until 2-2, when Chardy apparently forgot he was playing singles. The Frenchman sprayed unforced errors like a leaky hosepipe and, at a set and a break up, Murray was heading for an easy win.

If by this point Chardy was dreadful, Murray was eager to sink to the same level. The Scot immediately gifted the break back with a sackful of unforced errors of his own and the screaming vortex of fail began to gather speed.

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Both players seemed to be troubled more by the sun than each other and more hideous play ensued. Murray seemed to be content to roll in second serves and wait for an error. Chardy was happy to hit his forehand into the tramlines. Breaks were swapped until 5-4, with Murray attempting to serve for the match. Despite holding a match point, he failed and the score advanced to 5-5. After six straight breaks of serve, it was inevitable that someone would finally hold. Chardy was the lucky recipient of this honour – the Frenchman clinging on to take the set to 6-5. Murray eventually followed to drag the set, kicking and screaming, into a tiebreak.

The Scot has an atrocious tiebreak record this year – before this set he had lost 9 and won 5. Rather unsurprisingly, ten points later the statistic stood at 10 lost, 5 won. The third set was marginally better from Murray and he broke twice to take the set and the match 6-2.

There's an old saying that any victory is a worthwhile one, but this match really was scraping the barrel.

Next up is Ernest Gulbis, who Murray will presumably bother to show up against.
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