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Friday, January 21, 2011

Australian Open 2011: Andy Murray Marches On


It was Andy Murray show in the day session on the sixth day. In Guillermo Garcia -Lopez, he had an opponent capable of giving trouble. It was the same Lopez who had upset Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals at Bangkok in September, 2010. But that was all on paper. When the match started, Lopez could not take even one service game. The only game in the first set he got was by breaking Murray’s service. When playing against the journeymen, Murray appears to play with magnet on his racquet. The ball comes straight to his racquet, but that is only the relative motion. It is Murray who already moves in the direction of the intended shot or serve and he has few peers in this aspect of game. His anticipation, footwork and speed is so good that he looks invincible against majority of players. He also serves very well, with enough speed and good placement. But all this has vanished in the past when playing against Roger Federer in a Grand Slam tournament. Andy Murray is comfortable against players playing a few stock shots in a rally, but Federer does not do that. He always is on look out for the gaps and tends to shoot winners in that direction. Andy Murray does very well against those who have a defensive mind set but not so well against those who attack consistently and do not commit many unforced errors in the process. Lopez was not one of them. He was neither hitting winners nor keeping the ball in play for long. He did not win his first service game till the middle of the second set. It was only on his service game at 1-6, 0-5 that he could hold serve for the first time. The final score line was 6-1, 6-1, 6-2. Andy Murray won by deft placements and good court craft. It should not induce self belief in him that this will be the winning formula against all. Andy Murray does not yet possess an overpowering ground shot but he does possess a good first serve. If he plans to play to his strengths, he has to put in a minimum of 60% of first serve in and also serve a minimum of one ace per service game.

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