Andy Murray

[TENEMENTFUNSTER]

But time travel is beyond us so let's deal with less fantastic stuff. He canny beat Nadal, Federer and Djokovic to win slams, talented without the mentality to match. That being the case any era would probably see him "slamless".

[BobbyBiscuit]

For me, that's a lot of nonsense.

 

Federer is the greatest player in the modern era, while Nadal may go on to eclipse even his achievements if his knees hold up.

 

In my opinion, Murray would have won a major had he been playing around the 1997-2003 period.  The likes of Pat Rafter, Lleyton Hewitt, Marat Safin and Yevgeny Kafelinkov were multiple GS winners, while players like Goran Ivanisevic and Andy Roddick, Thomas Johansson and Petr Korda all won majors on the hard courts/Wimbledon (I'm not counting the French Open champions during this period because I'm not sure Murray could have won there - however, he certainly would have given the likes of Moya, Costa and Ferrero a good run for their money).  I reckon Murray is better than all those players.

 

 

 

Hmmm... I wouldn't say he's better than all of them at all actually, but there you go.

 

I don't subscribe to the "bottle merchant" argument as he's never been a favourite, because Nadal, Federer and Djokovic have all been better than him.  I don't really follow Golf, but the comparison will always be with Colin Montgomerie and his failure to collect a major... but hasn't Montgomerie been world number 1?  Also I believe Monty should have won one of the american majors, but was pipped by Ernie Els (is this correct?).  Murray, on the other hand, has made GS finals, but has never actually come close/had a chance to win the big prize, as he's always met far better players, who were playing far better tennis.  He's just not good enough.

 

If he's going to win a major during the current era he'll have to improve his game, ala Djokovic.  We'll find out over the coming years if he can find that next level... I have my doubts, but I hope I'm wrong.

 

 

Monty was never no.1.  He was pipped twice by Ernie, and I'd argue he rightly should have won neither as he didn't shoot a good enough score. 

He also monumentally bottled it in 07 at Winged Foot. Possibly the biggest bottle job I've seen in sport until Rory McIlroy in April at the Masters.  Monty couldn't close the majors out. I'd wager most top golfers at that time would want to be chasing Monty down at the top of a majors leaderboard than pretty much anyone else in the world's top 50 at that time.

 

I fully agree Murray just isn't good enough to consistently win Grand Slam events over those ahead of him in the rankings, however, he's 4th in the world, not 44th. I honestly think he should be putting up a better showing than he is... 3 GS finals... no sets won. That's why people say he's bottling it, because there's no fight there, certainly not the fight of a man only a couple of places away on the WR list.

[caledonia]

I don't think he is as good now as he was a few years back when he was beating the likes of Federer and Nadal and also you got the feeling he was getting very close.

Now you just don't know which Andy Murray is going to turn up.

Maybe its just me and I hope I am wrong but I think he has peaked and now its hit or miss if he wins a slam.

[RDU_64]

Soon to be the 'Colin Montgomerie' of Tennis.

[Kowalski]

Two Brits in the semi finals at Queens!  Nadal punted out! 

[manc_don]

Murray is dominating Roddick at Queens today. 

[Kowalski]

One of his best ever performances.

[Azteca1903]

Looking a wee bit lacklustre at the moment, one set down in the final.

[manc_don]

Looking a wee bit lacklustre at the moment, one set down in the final.

 

Tsonga is always fairly hard to break down. 2nd set could go either way at the moment.

 

1 set all now, cracking tie break.

 

Cracking bit of arrogance from Murray in the second to last game, nice to see someone have the audacity to try it and the skill to pull it off. Tsonga made it a great game.

 

Oh and Murray won.

[Kowalski]

Nice victory in the lead up to Wimbledon.

 

Could do with the Wimbledon organisers seeding him 3rd instead of 4th (i.e. so that he is not in Nadal's side of the draw).

[Azteca1903]

Aye did well in the end. Tsonga yeilded very little in the first two sets but from the tiebreaker onwards, Murray was excellent. An encouraging display of strength ahead of Wimbledon.

[Tyrant]

If he plays like he did against Roddick he can go all the way. That was outstanding.

[Sonoftherock]

Nice victory in the lead up to Wimbledon.

 

Could do with the Wimbledon organisers seeding him 3rd instead of 4th (i.e. so that he is not in Nadal's side of the draw).

 

May be different at Wimbledon, but I know at the Australian Open (This year Nadal (1st seed) was drawn with Soderling (4th seed) and all the other masters events that I know about, the 3rd seed is not automatically drawn with the 1st seed.

 

There is also some talk that Federer will be seeded 2nd by the organisers.  If that doesn't happen potentially Nadal and Federer could be drawn on the same side.

 

To be honest, all things considered, I'd want Murray drawn with Nadal.  Murray has beaten him twice before in Grand Slam semi-finals.  He's got a bad record against Federer in the Slams, while Djokovic is probably someone you'd want to avoid right now.

 

The quarter final and last 16 draws will be interesting though..... in the last 16 you want to avoid JM Del Potro if possible - Tsonga and Wawrinka would also be tough.  In the quarter final I'd take anyone other than Soderling.

 

Fingers crossed.

[Kowalski]

At Wimbledon its normally the 1st and 4th seeds in the same half of the draw, and the 2nd and 3rd seeds in the other half.

[Tyrant]

May be different at Wimbledon, but I know at the Australian Open (This year Nadal (1st seed) was drawn with Soderling (4th seed) and all the other masters events that I know about, the 3rd seed is not automatically drawn with the 1st seed.

 

There is also some talk that Federer will be seeded 2nd by the organisers.  If that doesn't happen potentially Nadal and Federer could be drawn on the same side.

 

To be honest, all things considered, I'd want Murray drawn with Nadal.  Murray has beaten him twice before in Grand Slam semi-finals.  He's got a bad record against Federer in the Slams, while Djokovic is probably someone you'd want to avoid right now.

 

The quarter final and last 16 draws will be interesting though..... in the last 16 you want to avoid JM Del Potro if possible - Tsonga and Wawrinka would also be tough.  In the quarter final I'd take anyone other than Soderling.

 

Fingers crossed.

 

Agree about avoiding Soderling. Tsonga and Wawrinka are tough but Murray's beaten them both at Wimbledon recently. Tsonga last year in three and I think Wawrinka was either last year or the year before?

 

Anyway. While there aren't likely to be any easy matches Murray should be ok all the way to the semis. There's no good or bad draw. There are too many top class players for any draw to be much better than the other.

 

Murray proved to me (in the way he beat Andy Roddick and Jo-Wilfred Tsonga) that he's got the game to beat the best. I know there are better players than Roddick and Tsonga  but he made them both looks like mugs. Roddick more so.

 

I know it's cliche but I think he has to manage to genuinely believe in himself.  After this week at Queens I don't believe the gap between Murray and the top 3 is as big as I previously thought but he now needs to display some serious mental toughness.

[Sonoftherock]

At Wimbledon its normally the 1st and 4th seeds in the same half of the draw, and the 2nd and 3rd seeds in the other half.

 

That makes Wimbledon different to every other tournment (other grandslams, master 1000, 500 and 250) on tour.  But I guess since we're talking about Wimbledon that isn't beyond the realms of possiblity - as I know that a wimbledon they like to have a greater control on things and follow tradition rather than tour rules.

 

The tour are usually quite receptive to this sort of thing too - At the French Open they allowed them to start a day earlier this year and that was quite controversial.  I will look this up regarding Wimbledon as I'm still not sure they would allow the organisers to fix the draw as you say.

[Sonoftherock]

At Wimbledon its normally the 1st and 4th seeds in the same half of the draw, and the 2nd and 3rd seeds in the other half.

 

As I suspected, I'm afraid you are wrong.

 

Last year Nadal (2) was drawn with Murray (4), while Djokovic (3) was drawn with federer (1).

 

in 2009 Nadal (1) was drawn with Murray (3), while Djokovic (4) was drawn with federer (2)

 

in 2008 Nadal (2) was drawn with davydenko (4), while Federer (1) was drawn with Djokovic (3)

 

I didn't think there was anyway that Wimbdledon would have been allowed to fix the draw like that

[Kowalski]

As I suspected, I'm afraid you are wrong.

 

Last year Nadal (2) was drawn with Murray (4), while Djokovic (3) was drawn with federer (1).

 

in 2009 Nadal (1) was drawn with Murray (3), while Djokovic (4) was drawn with federer (2)

 

in 2008 Nadal (2) was drawn with davydenko (4), while Federer (1) was drawn with Djokovic (3)

 

I didn't think there was anyway that Wimbdledon would have been allowed to fix the draw like that

 

My apologies, I could have sworn that was what they did. 

[Kowalski]

Not that the BBC are getting carried away but here is Murray's possible route to the Wimbledon final:

 

    R1: Gimeno-Traver (ranked 56)

    R2: Blaz Kavcic (Slovenia, 72)

    R3: Marin Cilic (Croatia, 27)

    R4: Richard Gasquet (France, 13)

    Q/F: Andy Roddick (USA, 10)

    S/F: Rafael Nadal (Spain, 1)

    F: Novak Djokovic (Serbia, 2)

 

[Kowalski]

As I suspected, I'm afraid you are wrong.

 

Last year Nadal (2) was drawn with Murray (4), while Djokovic (3) was drawn with federer (1).

 

in 2009 Nadal (1) was drawn with Murray (3), while Djokovic (4) was drawn with federer (2)

 

in 2008 Nadal (2) was drawn with davydenko (4), while Federer (1) was drawn with Djokovic (3)

 

I didn't think there was anyway that Wimbdledon would have been allowed to fix the draw like that

 

This year Nadal (1) has been drawn with Murray (4), while Djokovic (2) has been drawn with Federer (3).

[BigAl]

Bloody hell, Murray was like a machine after losing the first set.

To take two consecutive sets 6-0 is great going in anyones book

[Tyrant]

Aye it ended up being much easier than it looked like it was going to be. Having said that I think it'll be over by the semi final unfortunately.

[Kowalski]

Apparently some tossers have been shouting "C'mon Tim" during Murray's matches 

[BobbyBiscuit]

Apparently some tossers have been shouting "C'mon Tim" during Murray's matches 

 

This year may be his year!

[manc_don]

This year may be his year!

 

 

Decent match last night. The Croat was pretty tough to break down.