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[janscribe]

So Andy lost because of the pressure of being favourite?  The mind boggles.  I'll just accept that he lost because he wasn't good enough today - when you play tennis, you are only as good as your last game are you not?

Yes indeed - well said Bev and Mark.

[Mark]

I said it will raise more questions as to whether he can handle the pressure. I think he can personally but losing to Verdasco in the 4th round will raise the question amongst the TENNIS WORLD (ie not me)

No it won't, anyone who watched the match against Verdasco will clearly see that it had nothing to do with pressure, he just wasn't on form. Murray in no way choked that match.

[Bevc]

I won't give very much credence to what they've got to say.

[Sunniii]

I won't give very much credance to what they've got to say.

Neither will most members but the point im trying to make bev is that losing to FV will cause many players to raise the question as to whether Andy is ready yet or whther he can handle the pressure.

[Bevc]

Neither will most members but the point im trying to make bev is that losing to FV will cause many players to raise the question as to whether Andy is ready yet or whther he can handle the pressure.

I really don't think that but I guess they'll be thinking that they can beat him too - probably a bit like when other players beat the higher ranked players - you can't be invincible all the time.

[Mark]

Nole would be perfectly within his rights to say that he feels andy was feeling the pressure.

Yes, he is perfectly in his rights but it would be a stupid thing to say because anyone with half a brain who watched the match can see it had absolutely nothing to do with pressure.

[nestingus]

I think maybe he got his tactics wrong today. In the last five encounters against Verdasco he has won by being passive, really passive in fact, especially in Dubai last year when he really should have lost.

I think on the evidence of how Verdasco has been playing this week though he should have come in a bit more aggressive. Sooner or later Verdasco was gonna cut out the silly errors, and today thats exactly what happened.

Muzz will never really be an aggressive player, it's not his nature, he's still a counterpuncher by nature and I think he's still working it out for himself when to be passive and when not to be.

Against people like Tsonga, Davydenko and Verdasco (now it seems), the passive game will not cut. These guys will hit hard and accurate groundsrokes all day without errors so he needs to take the initiatve when he gets the chance. Those middle of the court balls (especially off the forehand side) will get gobbled up for fun.

Not a disaster in my opinion though. He's got the whole season to grab some valuable ranking points and probably clinch another couple of Masters Events. It's gonna be interesting.

@fernando - you are silly :-)

[Mark]

I'm glad Murray didn't deny that he was physically suffering in that match from illness, he said he wasn't feeling "terrible", that could be a clever way of saying he was struggling but he doesn't want to take credit away from his opponent.