[psychological tennis]

Ok, so lets look at the pre match scheduling of these two,  Andy had just won the rogers cup playing 5 matches in a row all in the afternoon, whilst Mardy withdrew from this tourney. Then poor andy had to travel 400 miles by road prior to his first match. One day to recover between his road trip and this match!! As for mardy probably flew by plane!! then to cap it all Andy had to play both of his matches yet again in 33 degree centigrade heat!! So coming in to his match with Mardy is it any wonder he was tired!! I feel Andy did well to get as far as he did in this tourney. Mardy seems only able to beat Andy when he is not in form or otherwise tired, the third set even though Andy was tired he still came gunning for mardy and was very unlucky to have lost the resulting tiebreaker. On reflection perhaps Mardys celebrations were a little over the top and he could have been a little more contrite. That said, i feel andy has had the best possible start to his US Open preparations. This loss perhaps in hindsight will be a blessing in disguise. Andy knows he is match ready!! His other rivals namely - Nadal, Roger Novak etc. seem to have there own issues. Mardy would be unwise to read anything into his latest win over Andy, other than he got lucky!! - Again!

[Philip]

I think the fact Fish over celebrated indicated how much this win means to him.

Since Andy won Toronto thrashing in form Nalbandian 6-2 6-2 (breaking 11 match winning streak), and beating Nadal and Federer in straight sets, his reputation on hard court is waxing strong and precedes him in matches. 

Other players now want to avoid meeting him in the draw and will press more when playing against him which is why Chardy and Gulbis lost to him, and may explain Fish over exuberant celebration when Fish won yesterday.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/8933330.stm

"It's been perfect.   I think I've played enough matches. It might be a good thing I lost today."

[araminta]

I think Andy should forget this week, the heat was ridiculous, he was clearly knackered and if I were him I would give this tournament a miss next year.
The decision to force him to play every afternoon after playing all last week was grossly unfair. As to the suggestion that he is fat, as McEnroe would say “you cannot be serious!”

And despite all that he still came closer to winning than Djokovich or Nada

[araminta]

Sorry Asimov. Somehow got my post into yours.

[humbfig]

BTW, don't you people agree that Murray became FAT since around 2 years?


HumbFig


Humbfig!! if your calling Andy Fat!! take a look at his new pics in american vogue!! oh and if Andy is fat then firstly i would hate to see what you call skinny and secondly if Andy is Fat then there is no hope for any of us then!! Please get a reality check, this fat comment of yours is so wide of the mark - no pun intended!

What I call skinny is how he looked 2 years ago. You can spot the difference, or can't you?
For sure, you can't think I'm using the word "fat" as in "He needs medical care, start on a diet, otherwise he'll develop heart problems", or can you?
Anyway, the idea didn't occur to me watching this last match. If he was always like this, he would do better stop playing. Since he's no longer skinny (I'm doing an extra effort to be careful with the words I use!) that he has trouble with his breathing. For example, I clearly remember watching him in trouble to recover his breath during the very FIRST game he played with Tipsarevic many months ago, after a very long break from tennis.
Other than Dkokovic, sometimes, I don't see any other player fighting to breathe in the court like he does. And this is a regular thing, forget about the last two matches.
Like Pete Bodo once wrote, Murray seems to have been born already tired......
Now, I don't remember to watch him fight his breathing in 2007-2008. And he was thinner back then...... and he was always on the move..... that's all I meant, I'm not really calling him fat, ok?

[OldScotSupport]

James, good succinct report.

However, I wish to take you to task over one of your comments.

In my opinion, in the last set tie-break where Andy was leading 4-2, was not a "poor line call", it was a disgraceful call. In fact the whole match depended on that decision.

If the call had been accurate Andy would have led 5-2 and may have been on the way to a surprising victory against all odds. Howver, Andy should have been the catalyst to appealing against the call and not play on.

This situation seems to repricate the USO final against Mr Obnoxious, where a similar call went against AM with a similar result.

Incidentally, I agree with most posts that the additional few days rest will benefit Andy as he looked fair knackered.   

[mcenroeforever]

the past couple of tournaments have to go down as a job well done by andy, he was under a fair bit of pressure to
protect his no4 position and unlike some of the other top players he goes into the US open with some wins against the best players around under his belt.
some of the commentators have been harsh this week saying he had abandoned his more aggressive game which he displayed to great effect in toronto..this was probably down to the playing conditions in cinci more than anything.
there are only about 3 or 4 players on the tour that i dislike and fish is certainly one of them. a very 'small time' guy who is admittedly playing some decent tennis this year, i too hope andy faces him in new york as when andy is fit and ready he will beat him fairly easily in my opinion. when andy has beaten an opponent who appears to be struggling with injury / fatigue i've noticed that the first thing he does on approaching his opponent at the net is to ask 'are you ok?' etc..fish on the other hand seemed to be more concerned with rubbing defeat in andys face the way he started leaping around, it was bordering on the embarassing. i did hope that andy would somehow manage to see the game out then pull out of the tournament leaving the organisers with only one semi final, that would have served them right. it made me sick to see fed dance around on a shaded court last night in his first full match of the tornament, he gets everything his own way so often at tournaments that it is just plain wrong and unfair on everyone else.
as for the 'fat' accusations and the debate of whether andy isn't as quick about the court these days, erm..haven't you seen the footage of andy doing sprint work as part of his training regime which is timed by stopwatch etc..don't you think andy and his team would have noticed if he was slower now than he was 2 or 3 years ago? using one match against nadal to demonstrate this doesn't cut it anyway as andy was probably playing that match on adrenaline against a player he rates more than any other in the game. what was andys ranking in the 'skinny legs' days?..enough said!! bring on new york..andy for the USO!!!!