Andy Murray

Apologies for the extended leave of absence on blogworld. I've been under the weather for the past month. One of the consolations of being off work these past few weeks has been watching the French Open at Roland Garrios. Andy Murray was the sole British hope throughout the tournament and he will probably have this burden on his shoulders for the rest of his career. His previous best at the French Open was the quarter finals but the draw was kind to him this year and he reached the semi's only to be beaten earlier this afternoon by Rafa Nadal in straight sets. It was an admirable effort by Murray and he played some good tennis. Although the better player won on the day Murray still continues to fall just short in the major tournaments. He has all the natural ability, technical skill and fitness so why can Murray not make this next step up? I don't have a definitive answer but two things became apparent during the match against Nadal. Firstly, as John Lloyd commented on, Nadal won the big points at crucial times in the match. Murray had plenty of opportunties to break Nadal's serve, eighteen in all, but only won three. I am not sure why he failed in this department but I think a lot of credit should go to Nadal for raising his game when it counts. I have noticed over the years of watching tennis that what often seperates the very good players from the top players is that the top players have the knack of winning a point when they most need to. Pete Sampras used to do this all the time. Whenever his back was up against the wall he would serve a couple of aces. Secondly, I think Murray's mentality lets him down a lot. There is nothing wrong in showing emotion during a game but he gets very negative at times when he plays a bad shot. He can get away with this when playing inferior players but it is a definite disadvantage against the top ten players. I am not sure whether Murray will ever win a major. He has the ability and all the shots, of that there is no doubt, but he needs to find that something extra to overcome the likes of Nadal, Djokovic and Federer. It perhaps unfortunate that Murray is competing at a time when these three outstanding players are dominating the game but you have to play with the cards you have been dealt.