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[Clydey]

You sound like the men in white coats.  I'll take your patronising comments on board and do better next time.  Patronising smile back at you.... 

Incredible post.  I'm not quite sure just who you think you are... 

<---------- Passive aggressive.

[Lurking]

Imagine what pyschobabbel analysis some of you would come up with if Murray had just lost two deciding set tiebreakers in a row after blowing MP's...

[janscribe]

Well done, Aileen, very positive interview.

[George183]

But he's not even in the same league as these guys right now.  

That’s not true. He was in with a chance of beating Fed at Aussie. I wouldn’t have been surprised if he had. A lot of people thought he might.

If these players had gone through the same thing as Murray is going through right now at this stage of his career, they never would have won a slam.

You don’t know that.

Time is running out for Murray.  

It’s a funny thing you should say that, because just this morning I suddenly realized that precisely the opposite was the case.

Andy suffers from not having as much experience at GS than Fed. As he gets more experience his computerized tennis brain will fathom out how to win. At Aussie he went through a sharp learning curve. He’ll benefit from it. Fed’s days are numbered. You’re being unduly pessimistic. You’re just very upset to think he might never succeed, because you want him to succeed, so much.

His confidence is being shot to hell.  

You’ve missed the point. His confidence WAS shot to hell at Aussie. He was REALLY, REALLY, REALLY shocked, horrified and devastated at how well Fed played, and feared that he would NEVER, NEVER, NEVER be able to beat him.

That WAS the sharp learning curve. Now his brain is working out how to benefit from it, almost subconsciously, almost without his being aware that it’s happening, which is why his standard has dropped.

He’s experimenting. He’s not playing his shots with confidence at the moment; he’s playing them with curiosity.

He’s wondering if they’re good enough. He’s wondering how he can improve on them.

He said he was experimenting against Tipso. The only thing is that he’s not used to it, and doesn’t know exactly how the process works, but he’ll work it out.

[George183]

I take your points, George, and of course Andy was 'in with a chance' of beating Fed at Aus - but he didn't.  I find it difficult to see how a player who has never won a slam can be thought of as in the same league as those who have won multiple slams, though.

Well it all depends on what you mean by “the same league”.

If you are referring to their past record, and what happened in the past, then he’s not, but if you’re referring to their position in the Top 5 league, and whether they can beat each other now, which is what it usually means, then he is.

And it should be remembered that all the player’s who’ve beaten Andy this year played above their game, which he wouldn’t have expected, and which caught him out, because he plays on opponents’ weaknesses, and which has been particularly unhelpful for him since he’s gone into experimental mode.

[Aileen]

George - you make a lot of interesting comments, but as far as I'm concerned, I could tell when Andy walked on court in that final that he didn't think he could win, whether because it was Federer, or nervousness because he was so keen to win his first Slam, I don't know.  Pete Sampras made the same comment after the 2008 USO final.  Certainly he got his confidence going in the 3rd set but by then it was too late, and he admitted later that what really hurt was the fact that he lost that set so narrowly.  I think he felt that if the match had gone to a 4th he might have been able to turn things around.

I just hope he does talk to Forzoni.  As Forzoni says (if you read the article posted by me at 7:55 am), Andy knows what the problem is, which is encouraging, but talking to this psychologist who helped him back in 2007 seems to be the quickest way of helping him get things worked out in his head before he gets any more confused and despondent.

[Aileen]

George - With respect, just what competitive level have you reached, or did you reach, in tennis?  Do you have coaching experience?  Can you be really sure that, at 22, Andy can deal with what's going on his head right now?

Andy worked with Forzoni to get his confidence back after being out with a serious wrist injury which could have threatend his career, and there's no doubt he came back to top form pretty quickly after such a long lay-off.  To say Forzoni doesn't know what he's talking about is ridiculous.  Andy isn't stupid and would never have kept consulting him if he felt he wasn't getting anywhere.

Anyway, I'm logging off now.
 

[George183]

George - With respect, just what competitive level have you reached, or did you reach, in tennis?  Do you have coaching experience? 

No. I’m a park-level tennis-playing educational psychologist.

Can you be really sure that, at 22, Andy can deal with what's going on his head right now?

It all depends on what you think is going on?

Andy worked with Forzoni to get his confidence back after being out with a serious wrist injury

Which was physical.

To say Forzoni doesn't know what he's talking about is ridiculous. 

But has Robert avidly studied every shot that Andy has played in every match, or watched every interview that he’s given, and listened to every comment made about his game by experts like Mark Petchey and Peter Fleming,  on SKY or BBC HD TV glued to a 42” flat screen TV for the last two years?

Andy isn't stupid and would never have kept consulting him if he felt he wasn't getting anywhere.

Well hopefully Robert is going to listen to Andy and give him the right advice, which could well be as I’ve suggested.

The main point is that Andy has made it clear that he definitely doesn’t like losing, and so, he’s going to make every effort to win, and so, because he’s brilliant, he will.