Roger Federer vs. Andy Murray – Wimbledon 2012

Video Rating: 4 / five

Andy Murray will Win a Major, says FedEx

New world number one Roger Federer is confident that British player Andy Murray will bounce back from his defeat to him at the final of Wimbledon and added that he at least has one Grand Slam title in him.

Speaking at the post match interview on court, Federer, who was extremely emotional having won his seventh and record equaling Wimbledon title stated that Murray had just been unlucky in his quest for a Grand Slam title.

This was the fourth time that Murray had reached a Grand Slam final and has lost all four of those finals, three of those defeats coming against Federer himself and the other against the former world number one Novak Djokovic. Read more »

MURRAY COMES THROUGH KARLOVIC TEST

Andy Murray came through a challenging four set encounter in 4 sets with the Croatian giant Ivo Karlovic on Thursday afternoon. The match was always going to be a completely different affair to Murray’s thrashing of Davydenko in the first round, and it took all the Scot’s determination to keep his own serve strong while taking advantage of any hint of weakness in the Karlovic serve. At 6’ 10” the Croat is the biggest player on tour and his serve is everything you would expect from a man of this stature. With second serves regularly coming Murray’s way at 120mph or more, his defence had to be spot on, and for most of the time it was.

The first set was a close affair but Andy pulled ahead on serve to 6-5, then created a set point with a backhand winner. Throughout the match Karlovic gave away foot faults, much to his own frustration, and this was the case on his first serve at set point. This clearly distracted him and he netted his second serve to give Murray a one set lead. The second set was even closer, going to a tie break which Karlovic edged 7-5, making it ten wins out of the last 11 tie breaks. The Scot finally gained some significant momentum in the second set, breaking twice and winning comfortably before Karlovic upped his game again in the fourth. This saw another tie break, but Murray held his nerve and at 4-4 the Croat double faulted giving his opponent a match point which he took with aplomb, finishing the match 6-4 6-7 (5-7) 6-2 7-6 (7-4).

“Winning is all that’s important when you’re playing a guy with his style,” a visibly relieved Murray said after the match. “It’s so challenging to get into a rhythm.” The world number four was also happy with the way he played the tie breaks, thinking of Ivo’s exemplary record in this area of the game. “Tie-breaks are a bit of a lottery with someone like Karlovic. You have to get your racquet on returns and hope he makes a mistake. I was seeing the ball fairly well on the return, I was hitting it cleanly on the forehand and I came up with good passing shots at the right time.”

Murray Plays Down Wimbledon Fears

Andy Murray feels happy going into Wimbledon, despite losing his last three matches on grass in the build-up to the third Grand Slam of the year.

The British number one was shocked at Queen’s Club, when defending his AGEON Championship, losing in the opening match to Nicolas Mahut. Read more »

Memorable Wimbledon – tears and tantrum

Video Ranking: four / 5

Andy Murray: does he have what it takes?

With the French open underway, every top ranked tennis player will have their full concentration on winning at the Roland Garros stadium. However one would assume Andy Murray has one eye on the upcoming and eagerly anticipated Wimbledon championship.  After reaching the semi-finals last year, he equalled previous British hopeful Tim Henman’s personal best achievement at the tournament. At only twenty five many are hoping Murray may have what it takes to secure the title at some point in his career.

Although this may still be the case, many would also have thought that he may have already established a grand slam victory at this stage in his career. The world number one and two, Novak Djokivic and Rafa Nadal who are all the same ages as Murray have won several grand slam victories. Murray was knocked out by Nadal last year despite taking the first set and even after winning the queens title against Jo-Wilfred Tsonga.

Murray certainly has the ability and a strong versatile game suited to grass court play and has a good work ethic on and off the court. However He also seems to struggle on the business end of a tournament. Since 2008, Murray has lost in eight different finals or semi-finals of grand slams, with almost every one against opposition he has beaten before.  This seems to be following a very traditional British tennis pattern of bottling it at the wrong time. One can only hope he can develop the mental strength and to get that bit of luck all good champions require to secure a grand slam victory soon and once he’s got one I wouldn’t be surprised if the flood gates began to open.