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[TheMadHatter]

Disagree about Cincinnati. Andy came out all guns blazing that day, and the supposed injury didn't appear until after he broke Djokovic straight back to go 4-3 up.

[theycanbillme]

"Another thing I’d say is that, while Andy really thrives against the likes of Nadal, Djokovic, Federer etc. basically on any surface, his real danger will always lie in earlier rounds of any GS and RG won’t be any different and that is, whether there’s any pressure or not. "

Err...certainly not in Grand Slams. Andy's record against the big 3 in Slams is truly woeful. Unless I'm mistaken the only one he has beaten is Nadal. He's beaten him twice but Nadal retired injured in the Aussie Open semi-finals.  Andy is almost certain to lose to Fed, Nadal or the Rubber Man in Slams. He's almost certain to win against anyone else though. He's unlikley to lose early in a Slam because its best of 5 and that just makes a shock far more unlikely.

Andy is not certain to lose to the big 3 going on in slams going on as long as he keeps improving.
Did his loss at the AO against Novak look like a certainty?
I don't buy it at all.
His slam record as the youngest match wise of the top 4 is obviously more a testament to his development so far, and slam results are usually the last to improve as they require the most, but they have improved. Furthermore he could, like Novak has done but hadnt at all before and Roger rarely has despite being at the end of his career, still now go on to turn the tide against Nadal in slams too.
It was his misfortune to be always drawn against Nadal while his game & mentality were improving. However had it been Roger or Novak pre 2011 that were drawn against Rafa the results would probably have been the same.
Perhaps in Roger's case even worse.

[Emma Jean]

Disagree about Cincinnati. Andy came out all guns blazing that day, and the supposed injury didn't appear until after he broke Djokovic straight back to go 4-3 up.

Agree re: Cincy. Andy is excellent when it comes to Masters final as long as it’s hard (and if there were any grass Masters, I’d say grass as well) and in that match, Andy had Nole on the ropes and Nole, while I agree that he must have been a bit tired by that time, he was going to lose regardless. Andy does very well around that time of the year and it’s regardless Novak or anyone else has done excellent stuff throughout the year. So I give that win to Andy without a doubt. When it comes to fair play, I most certainly don’t trust either Novak or Nadal. They have their tendencies. Roger is perhaps not as flowery with his words when it comes to giving credit to his opponents after a bad loss, at least he doesn’t rob them.

But sometimes players tend to dumb tournaments but certainly not in the later stage when so much work has already put in.

[Aileen]

Speculation with the benefit of hindsight is a wonderful thing.    I did say his win over Djoko was "debatable", which doesn't mean to say I don't think Andy would have won anyway because I'm 90% certain he would have.  Djoko's quick recovery from such a disabling injury by the USO was a bit suspect, and he did say words to the effect that he couldn't play a player like Andy if he wasn't "fit".

[Emma Jean]

Actually I based my speculation on a few things such as until that point their H2H on hard was 3 all and before the AO happened, Andy had 3 straight wins over Nole on the very surface and 2 of them were in Masters final and the fact, that Andy must have been waiting for an opportunity to meet with him again after AO and Rome. He was in control of the match from the start. No sluggish start or whatsoever. And also the fact that, Andy can give Nole all sorts of problems on hard courts. And since he was leading the match anyway, it favours him the most. Of ocurse what Nole says is very true as well. You have to be 100% in order to play any of the top guys and the part I find “debatable” is how “tired” Nole truly was (or that shoulder injury of his that suddenly appeared in major way in a final match he was about to lose) or that he just simply didn’t want to enter USO with a loss to one of the top guys who is usually a contender in both hard court majors.

[Aileen]

Full article here:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/apr/10/andy-murray-lendl-french-open?newsfeed=true

Within days of starting work, Lendl said there was no reason Murray could not win the French Open. Perhaps for the first time, the world No4 agrees.

"I have to believe that I can win it," Murray said yesterday at Queen's Club, as he announced that he will warm-up for Wimbledon at the Aegon Championships for the next five years. "I was going to say that I have to agree with him [on everything] but I don't have to. Last year gave me a lot of confidence and I still feel like I could have played better.

"The French Open was a really important tournament for me last year. I've said it many times, not just because I got to the semis there for the first time but because of the way the tournament went.

"Providing I have improved and that over the next five, six weeks I keep doing that and working hard then there's no reason why I can't give it a good shot. I wouldn't say I'm the favourite going in; [Novak] Djokovic, Roger [Federer] and Rafa [Nadal] have got much better results than me on clay but I think I can win against them. I need to work hard over the next five, six weeks for sure."

Thanks Linda.  Yet another encouraging article that shows just how well Andy and Lendl seem to get on together.  Long may it continue.    

I agree - it's that magic word "BELIEVE" Andy has to get firmly fixed into his brain.  Well Andy's mental attitude has greatly improved since Lendl became his coach and last year he made the SF carrying a fairly serious ankle injury, so this year, under Lendl's guidance, who knows?  The fact that he probably won't be the favourite to win goes pretty much in Andy's favour since being the underdog often brings out the best in him.  However, there are four tournies to get through first, by the end of which we, and Andy, should have a much clearer idea of how much further his game on clay has improved since last year.