AMS Round 4 - Murray v Mathieu

Sheddie · administrator

AMS Round 4 - Murray v Mathieu

mkkreuk · Admin:Moderator + ATP qualifying

Murray wins 2-6 7-5 6-3. way harder than it should have been.

Montana Doug · Futures qualifying

Andy wins....wow.....looked like a cake walk from what I watched on ESPN.

And may I please use my 900th post to point out that Serena is about to beat Maria in the match about to start? lol

Sheddie · administrator

Andy serving:

15-0: M bh wide

30-0: Andy hits deep bh dtl followed by one cross-court. He follows it into the net and produces a wonderful drop volley

40-0: M bh takes a hefty deflection off the net and goes wide

Game: What a way to end the match. Stunning bh winner cross-court

2-6, 7-5, 6-3 !!!!

Sheddie · administrator

Murray hit 19 winners to just 2 from Mathieu in that final set !

bellamy11 · Lower Club Player

Reminds me an awful lot of the Schuettler match, and the Soderling match from San Jose last year. Although I only saw them on livescore, they seemed to follow the same pattern. When he got to Deuce at 4-5* for the first time I started to believe he could do it.

timmoore46 · Admin:moderator + Club Coach

Well done Andy ! Lets just forget the first set and bits of the second! LOL

Salmon · Tennis legend

Mmm... I feel so smug now.

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

Ouch.

That was painful to watch, until the last set.

I hope he has now got that out of his system for the quarter-final!

scoobsuk · Club Coach

There are different ways to win a tennis match impressively.

You can come out, play extremely well against someone not playing very well, and just put the hurt on them from start to finish. Murray's match against Martin at the Australian was squarely in that mould. In the context of that match, Murray was annoyed with himself for not finishing it 0, 0 and 0.

You can come out and play extremely well against an opponent also playing extremely well, and find a way to get around them in the end when both are playing well at the end. Murray's win over Karlovic in San Jose was probably in that mould. A variation on this is when both are playing scrappy but drama-filled tennis in a tense atmosphere and the winner is impressive. The match against Haas in Indian Wells was in that mould.

Then there are matches where you come out and play AWFUL. When the touch isn't there, you're seeing the ball like a marble, where the conditions work against you, where your opponent is playing sweetly and it's all you can do to hang onto points, never mind games and sets. You fall behind but you manage to hang in there and keep...just about...in touch. Your opponent is confident, hitting the targets, running you around, but you just about stay in it - maybe you save a few match points. At the decisive moment you manage to start to string it together and, with a few good shots, and perhaps a little help from your opponent, you manage to turn the whole match on its head. Your sheer fight and guts and stubbornness keep you alive, and you pull out of the slump and start to play well - and you turn it in your favour, deflate your opponent utterly, and win running away.

Today's match was squarely in that mould.

Now you can be critical of how poorly he played in the first set and a half, and fair enough. He played BAD tennis for a long stretch. But if you do that, you must give him also the credit for not quitting, not letting it go, fighting for every point even when it's not working the way you want, and for toughing it out and eventually wresting control of the match.

Yes Mathieu blew it but Murray did more than enough to ensure Mathieu had time to focus on it and blow it. Mathieu nearly had a double break and if he had, he would have won. As it is, Murray kept fighting until Mathieu hollered Uncle and the match was Andy's.

In its own way, very impressive.

Just - we'd like it to be more impressive in the other ways next time please

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

Andy came from a set down to beat Paul-Henri Mathieu 2-6 7-5 6-3 saving two match points in the process, in an absorbing encounter in Miami.

Going into the match it was expected that Murray's variation would be too much for the talented, though erratic, Mathieu. Paul-Henri's win over Australian Open finalist Fernando Gonzalez came as something of a surprise but suggested that Mathieu might be in good form.

Previous early morning starts had not agreed with Andy. His performances sluggish and barely recognisable from his usual standard of tennis. The first two games indicated that he had resolved this problem as he held to love, firing a forehand winner, a backhand winner and an ace, then broke to 30 as PHM double faulted.

What followed was almost certainly the worst set of tennis Murray has played all year. Mathieu was aggressive, dominating the points with his forehand, often running around his backhand, taking Andy wide, getting the ball to jump high, keeping a good depth, but doing nothing spectacular. Sensible tennis, few unforced errors, was all it took for PHM to take the next 6 games. A 2nd serve that missed by at least 3 yards gave Mathieu his first break of serve. A horrible smash error long having let the ball bounce contributed to the second break to 15. And yet more errors gave him a third break of serve, again to 15.

In total Andy managed to win 7 points on serve in the opening set, four of which came in the first game, and four of those seven points came from unreturned serves. Murray's groundstrokes were unrecognisable with routine shots missing the target. The extraordinary sight of several sliced backhands that failed to make it over the net being perhaps the lowest point of a lacklustre display.

Into the second set, Andy was winning more cheap points on serve but otherwise not much had changed. Mathieu came up with some super returns to force the first break of serve for 2-3 then twice came back from 0-30 to reach 3-5. Murray's angled volley landed narrowly wide to take Paul-Henri to match point but a couple of big first serves allowed him to hold. A tense PHM struggled with his first serve at 4-5 but still reached match point only to strike a backhand into the net, then another backhand unforced error wide, and finally a backhand clipped the top of the net and flew long to hand Murray the break. Andy held, then started to play, a backhand return winner and a backhand down the line winner following some amazing defence, levelled the score at one set each.

The third set was all Murray. PHM's level had dropped alarmingly while Andy was close to his very best. He held to love with a couple of aces, then broke to 15. Winners were flying off both wings; the backhand down the line causing Mathieu real trouble. Andy held for 5-2 then reached 0-40 but Mathieu won the next five points with aggressive play forcing Murray to serve out the match, which he did comfortably despite failing to land a single first serve. The final stroke a superb double-handed backhand winner crosscourt.

So victory for Murray despite a shocking display for the first set and a half. His forehand was no match for Mathieu and he simply had no answer to Paul-Henri's controlled aggression. Fortunately he remembered that Mathieu is renown for feeling the pressure in tense situations and kept fighting when in deep trouble. The Murray serve responded well after the first set, 20 unreturned serves compared to 9 from his opponent during the final two sets.

All credit to Andy for coming through when for long periods he looked desperately short of weapons that could win him any points. The slow court made trips to the net unprofitable, while the Murray forehand couldn't cope with the high bouncing ball. All the while Mathieu was playing steady tennis, keeping unforced errors to a minimum. Then the match points came and went, and everything changed.

-- Edited by kundalini at 19:40, 2007-03-27

VSandhi20 · Futures qualifying

Well deserved and bravely fought win for Murray! i didnt watch the match but i thought he blew it when he 5-3 down, but it shows that despite playing your best tennis you need the 'willingness to win'

also i read the report on the beeb, it said that he was fired up in the latter stages because a spectator shouted 'murray you got no hope' i think that what he said but don't know the exact wordings.

Nevertheless, a brave lionheart performance, with a late afternoon/night match tomorrow or the day after, he will certainly be awake for that one!

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

Jac wrote:

Mad, how big is the live stream video? when following livescores i often 'squash' the pages down so both fit, meaning can type here and follow lives scores at the same time.

Sorry for the late reply, Jac, and welcome to the board by the way. I watched the match, posted a quick note on here and had to dash off to choir practice(I was late, thanks Andy!)

I was watching the Masters Series TV stream, which I decided to pay for since I don't have Sky or Eurosport. I like to watch it full screen so that I can actually see the ball, as my monitor is only medium size. For some weird reason MSTV is really slow to get out of, which is why I find it difficult to switch.

During that first set I was wishing I was only watching a scoreboard, it was painful! He really couldn't seem to do a darn thing right. Frankly he looked a very grumpy young man who would far rather have had a lie-in!

Morning matches don't seem to agree with him, I hope he doesn't have too many of them.

But full marks to him for grit and determination in the end. (when he had woken up properly

)

aria81 · Club Coach

I think we should all chip in and hire a professional heckler for him in matches like this since it was the guy who apparently called out 'Murray, you've got nothing!' at 5-3 that got him really riled up and motivated.

Really impressed with the way Andy hung in there - it shows a lot of character and class to find a way to win a match like that. Okay, he didn't play great for long periods but when it really mattered he produced the right shot. He was very honest about his post-match comments - said he was going for stupid shots early, kept getting moved out of position and took too long to warm up in the match.

johnnylad · Tennis legend

WOW! What a comeback. I left the house at 6-2 3*-2 and thoguth it was all over!