Saturday, May 15, 2010

The Murray Conundrum

I would like to state right now that I am not going to even muse on the possibility of a Fedal final in Madrid. It will be a jinx. And Ferrer and Almagro are fierce players. Note that I am not mentioning any words like 'destiny'.

Instead, I want to talk about Andy Murray.

I completely forgot he was even in this tournament until he lost to Daveed Ferrer today. This is not just me not paying attention - this is, I believe, symptomatic of Murray's career over the last few months. It has been very easy to forget about Andy Murray. Too easy, when he's supposed to be ranked in the top five.

I don't know how much of this is his relative inability to play on clay and how much is the funk he is undoubtedly in. A quarter final in Madrid is actually not that bad a result, considering what other results he's been pulling over the last little while. And maybe this under the radar thing will work for him. He's certainly the dude that no one is talking about going into Roland Garros.

...where, we must remember, he made the quarters last year. His relative inability to play on clay is just that - relative. He's never going to be a dirtballer, let's put it that way.

But, all this aside, I can't help feeling that something is very wrong with Andy Murray. And with Wimbledon fast approaching, where expectations are going to hit him like a freight train, he's running out of time to straighten up and fly right. Because if he's in a hole now, imagine what the British media will do to him if he disappoints in SW19.

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