Andy Murray

http://www.blog.ensltd.com/2013/01/john-...re-murray/

^^^ john inverdale making sense! who knew.

Seems he is struggling to be fit for French Open with a back injury. Pulled out of match today in Rome

Officially has pulled out of French Open with back injury.

It makes sense. Have to say probably the right decision - I mean there's no point in him turning up at the French, less than 50% fit, trying to win a couple of rounds and risking another injury which would rule him out for months. To win on clay you have to be 100% or close to it because its such demanding tennis. The rallies are longer, more punishing, the wear and tear on the body is greater with all the slides and running longer. Much more sensible for him to get better for the grass court season where he'll have a shot at winning Wimbledon. He's also defending champion at US Open so he'll want to go there, plus he's also committed to the Davis Cup tie against Croatia in September. He needs to get himself as sharp as possible for these upcoming commitments.

I think the word rollercoaster would be the most apt description to use today for Andy Murray's nervy victory this evening over Fernando Verdasco. A lot of people in the media caught up in the usual Andy Murray fever thought this was going to be nothing more than a formality and an easy route into the semi's. Just how wrong they could have been.

Fernando Verdasco before the game was considered nothing more than a long shot to nothing. If Andy Murray goes all the way and wins Wimbledon then I reckon he'll most likely look back at this match to see just how close he came to failure.

Well done Andy you are doing Scotland proud and flying the saltire with pride. Scottish through and through

BREAKING NEWS: Scotland's Andy Murray loses the first two sets, but British Andy Murray comes back to win the following three sets

A victory like that shows how much he has improved during the last 12 months.
He has experienced many painful lows and disappointments but with the help of Ivan Lendl, an Olympic gold medal and a US Open win Murray has learnt to approach the game in a much more positive way.
Yes he still suffers from the odd outpouring of frustration as we saw against Verdasco but this is certainly less of a frequent problem than in times gone by. To me he looks like he is relishing the challenge of trying to compete in such a tough era in the mens game. With that comes enjoyment and clearer thinking imo.
Instead of endless worry about the ramifications of defeat he seems intent on finding a way to win no matter how tough a predicament he is in.
The Verdasco match was evidence of how far Murray has progressed. A while ago he would have sunk without trace in a match like the one against Verdasco. Not now.
The more he focusses on trying to win rather than trying not to lose the better his fortunes will be.
Best of luck to him.

he has come back from 2 sets down a few times before, he seems to love doing it don't he, makes a win like that look better than a routine straight sets win, i don't see this polish guy causing murray any problems in the next round though, his serving don't look that great for a big man, karlovic had a way better serve and murray beat him, if murray had to take on del potro that would be a real test, the draw has been kind to murray, of course that was cos federer and nadal went out so its their own fault really

Verdasco may be ranked 54 in the world at moment but he has been as high as 7 in rankings so it was never going to be easy match for Murray. Having said that didn't think he would need 5 sets to win it