OK, so it was only a brief sports report within a general news programme, but BBC News 24 reported 10 minutes or so ago that Andy might give Cincy (& presumably also New Haven) a miss as he prepares for this year's USO, following his defeat in Montreal earlier today by the Italian qualifier, Fabio Fognini...
Well im in 2 minds about this news, i would like to see andy play these events to gain more match practise ahead of us open but however its hard to tell whether or not he needs more time to recover or if he just needs the match practise and the confidence to go for those forehand shots because i felt he was holding back today, almost scared he was going to hurt it again.
From today it really looks like he lacks confidence in his forehand. He couldn't hit it properly at all and I think I only saw him hit one hard and it went flying out of court. His point construction as a result wasn't at the same calibre as it normally would be.
It seems like it could be more psychological than physical and it's going to take him a while to get over that. He doesn't have the killer shot that he can get the easy points on whilst he gets his confidence back so for him to come back and struggle against a guy like Fognini, who with all due respect to him, isn't on the same level as Andy must shake his confidence even more.
I don't know what would be best - I would be inclined to say that going out and playing actual matches would be for the best but whilst he's still nursing the forehand he runs the risk of other results like this and that could set his confidence back even more in it. It's a difficult thing and I can understand why he's cautious about what he should do next.
It's strange. On the video interviews on the BBC website, both he and Brad say he needs match practice. It will be interesting to see whether he withdraws from Cinci and New Haven or not.
I'm in two minds about it as well - I think I would prefer him to play and get the match practice even if he gets knocked out in the first round of them both (unlikely in New Haven I would have thought). But only Andy can know how he feels.
I think it depends on whether it's a confidence issue, in which case I expect he'll continue playing as match practise is the only solution. Or a injury problem still in which case I expect he'll take the time off to get the wrist back to 110%. From the quotes I've been reading/hearing it's sounding predominantly a confidence thing but we don't really know what's going on behind the scenes so I suppose we'll just have to wait and see.
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According to the Beeb site, on which I'm currently monitoring the latest Premier League footie scores (for developments in the Wigan vs Middlesbrough match), Minto's withdrawn from the Pilot Pen tournament in New Haven next week. No more details than that at the moment. This is serious...
