[MT]

I think it would be wrong to blame the physical side for this loss. Both men were extremely fit and Andy moved well throughout the match reaching most drop shots (except agonisingly the 40-30 in third set which would have given him the break and seemed to turn the match) I think he lost because he was unable to reach Djokos level of accuracy and consistency and his weak second serve was punished relentlessly. His shots eventually let him down against a relentless opponent. I expect he knew before we did when the match was lost as he has been playing this guy since he was 12. I hope he can bounce back and win the next tournament.

[ST Essex]

He didn't try much variation in the second serve today, unlike in his other matches.

[doublebagel]

I think the thing we have to take away from this final is that it didn't undo everything he achieved to get there.  All of that beautiful clean hitting, glorious movement, superb tactical thinking, much improved serve, calmer on court attitude, it's all still there, locked in place and ready to be used for the rest of the season.  He has the tools ready, they just failed him on the big day.  It's all too easy for some to discount those achievements as soon as there's a defeat.  Andy will shake this off after giving himself a bit of a hard time no doubt and then talking it through with Amelie.


Edit: I just read his press conference interview and I don't think he's going to give himself a hard time at all.    His mindset is superb right now.  He's pleased with his performance in Australia, as he should be.

[ST Essex]

Press conference: Andy said he became distracted in the 3rd set. Says he felt physically fine after the match.

[Littlebuddha]

Well said doublebagel I wish all those who have written Andy off should bugger off and find somewhere else to spout all their rubbish. What a load of wingers,they should take time off from posting on MW their comments are purile.

[amongsttheleaves]

I've taken a little bit of time to reflect on the match before posting this afternoon. I've also just read Andy's post-match press conference transcript (posted in the News Articles thread).

In the PC Andy admits that he was distracted in the middle of the third set by Djokovic's issues/antics and he says he is disappointed/frustrated about the missed chances in that set. As Andy fans we are perhaps more disappointed with the final set, but for Andy it is the third set that is the most frustrating. Andy is definatley annoyed about Djokovic's self-created melodrama (I apologise to any Djokovic fans here who might find that insulting, but I'm sure that many of us here will agree that Djokovic's behaviour from the beginning of that match was unworthy of an elite tennis player and the world number 1).

I see Connor has posted a quote from the PC which has been slightly taken out of context with regards to Andy not feeling too disappointed. His disappointment at the loss was evident at the end, and there were reports (not sure if these are confirmed) that some racquet smashing went on at the end (someone who is not disappointed and frustrated does not smash racquets).

My sense is that he is taking a more pragmatic approach to losses - things have happened to some of those close to him which have perhaps offered some perspective on tennis/life balance, a perspective I think Amelie also brings (the issues with her family, and the death of her father just at the moment when these issues had been repaired are just two examples). Some people may see this as a point worthy of a negative critical attack on Andy, but as he says in the PC 'Success is being happy', and he is looking to enjoy his tennis more - my personal feeling is that a happy Andy who is enjoying playing will work harder to get the results than a miserable Andy.

The match itself was tight for two and a half-sets, with momentum switches, Andy clawing his way back into the sets when it seemed all might have been lost, and yes, of course, it is disappointing that he lost when it seemed to us that he had chances to 'take' the match, but we were not out on court, and who are we to pass judgement from our sofas? The second serve had looked improved in the weeks before the AO and during the AO itself, but tonight the second serve didn't show the improvement we had seen and the first serve was not quite consistent enough. There were some shots where perhaps it seemed to us as viewers that he made the wrong shot selection. Amelie has spoken about this - that when a player has variety at their disposal it is about making the perfect shot selection. Andy didn't always make the perfect shot selection today, and there were a few times when he did make the perfect shot selection but the execution was far from perfect. In getting to the final Andy already exceeded my hopes for this tournament (I'd made a mental note when he was playing in Abu Dhabi that a semi-final spot would be a good result given what happened in November).

Back in October/November Amelie said she thought Andy was on an upward curve, I haven't seen anything to contradict this. Today's match has highlighted areas for more improvement. I hope that Andy can use the match and his annoyance/frustration with certain things to propel these improvements - I think he will.

One last thing I will say is that in the last 18 or so months Andy's opportunities to play high-intensity matches such as this have been few and far between. This tournament he has played three such matches including today's final (he was in a final!). Two of those matches were against potential boogeymen in Dimitrov (because of the Wimbledon QF) and Berdych (because of the H2H and the whole Dani thing) perhaps getting through those matches used up more mental and emotional energy than we know about, both Dimitrov and Berdych thought they could (and maybe that they would) win those matches. The more Andy plays against the top 10 players in tournaments in the early part of the year the more battle hardened he will become, the intensity of matches will become easier to process and deal with. He wasn't playing those sorts of matches last year, deep in tournaments against the world's best. Andy is back at that level now in terms of going deep in tournaments and his ranking and I can't see a reason for the upward curve to change direction. I've said it before, but I will say it again: time, patience and hard work.  

[amongsttheleaves]

Now for a bit of comedy:

Regardless of which man actually lifted the trophy today, for me the person who actually 'won' the final was Kim for her fantastic t-shirt.

A friend/colleague has just emailed me to say that hopefully I am not too unhappy about Andy's loss today because apparently 'Mercury is in retrograde and it wouldn't have helped Andy one bit' (context: friend works on astrology in literature) I'm not sure what this means, but if you understand what that means and have some faith in things like that then I'm told it affects Virgo and Gemini in Andy's 'natal chart', Pluto helped Djokovic out, and there's something to do with Uranus making things erratic for Andy (I have a glazed look on my face because I have no clue what my friend is on about). For people who follow this perhaps it is helpful, others might shake their heads and have a chuckle.