ATP Metz - Final - Murray v Robredo

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

ATP Metz - Final - Murray v Robredo

helki · Futures qualifying

I can't believe this! How do you go from winning the first set to love and then make a pigs ear of the next two. I didn't see the match but do I gather Mr Grumpy put in an appearance and everything went downhill after that or did Tommy up his game?

Armchair · County player

I can understand losing a three setter after a long break through injury.
But to bagel the first set then lose the next two without much of a fight
is a worry.
What do you think was the problem? I was following the scoreboard so don't
have much of a clue.

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

helki wrote:

I can't believe this! How do you go from winning the first set to love and then make a pigs ear of the next two. I didn't see the match but do I gather Mr Grumpy put in an appearance and everything went downhill after that or did Tommy up his game?

Both.

helki · Futures qualifying

Madeline wrote:

helki wrote:

I can't believe this! How do you go from winning the first set to love and then make a pigs ear of the next two. I didn't see the match but do I gather Mr Grumpy put in an appearance and everything went downhill after that or did Tommy up his game?

Both.

Thought so! furious

Thanks for confirming.

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

Armchair wrote:

I can understand losing a three setter after a long break through injury.
But to bagel the first set then lose the next two without much of a fight
is a worry.
What do you think was the problem? I was following the scoreboard so don't
have much of a clue.

I wouldn't say he didn't put up a fight. He played absolutely gloriously in the first set, then Robredo pulled himself together just as Andy possibly relaxed a bit too much. He started missing first serves, balls that were previously just in were going just out. He got annoyed at one call that on the replay did look like a bad call as far as I could see (but don't take my word for that, the livestream is not very clear on my computer), and then things went downhill. He wasn't playing really badly but kept just missing the lines instead of just hitting them. The more that happened, the grumpier he got, and started making more mistakes.

Hopefully the Psychologist will go through that match with him and he will control things better in Moscow.

-- Edited by Madeline at 16:21, 2007-10-07

VSandhi20 · Futures qualifying

A shame that he lost, but a good week nevertheless! i think the reason why he may have lost, was that robredo started off slowly, then murray began to crumble because robredo was able to pick his game up. other thing was that murray may have thought of victory too early so i think murray probably was under pressue in maintaining that form for the second set.

Armchair · County player

Ah well, as long as the wrist is holding up (fingers crossed), there's
time to iron out the other problems before the new season in January.

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

The first set was just brilliant, with Murray playing as well, if not better, than he was before he got the wrist injury, and was showing the form that had him near the very top of the ATP race

But then he stops being aggressive, and became way too passive, and I think Robredo hit a lot more winners in the last 2 sets, which is not the kind of game that Murray should be playing. Robredo is a very soild player, who doesn't make a lot of errors once he gets into the rally, so the last way you want to play against him is to just moonball the ball back to him, which is what Murray was doing

Murray didn't really try and change up his game until the very end when he threw in 4/5 dropshots in the last game, and appeared just to go walkabouts mentally after winning the first set and never came back. Whether he thought the match was over after the bagel, or he just choked, I guess we'll never know

Still, at least he is getting back towards his best form, and hopefully can push on and do well in Moscow this week

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Maybe Andy caught a sight of that disgusting winners trophy after the first set and didn't want it on his mantelpiece!

Sheddie · administrator

Afterwards he told his official site (http://www.andymurray.com):

I probably served about 35/40% of first serves after the first set. Against a guy like Tommy who doesnt make many mistakes you need to get free points from somewhere. I didnt get it off my serve today but its been a good week. Its been a long time since Ive been able to play like this. Little bit of inexperience cost me today, but Ill learn from it and hopefully play better because of it..

I played a great first set. He wasnt playing so well. I played a bad game at the start of the second set; missed a lot of first serves, and once he got that break he started to play better and relaxed a little bit.

I feel pretty good. The more matches you play the better physically you feel. I did a lot of running in the match today so its good for me. Its just the consistency. I did the same sort of thing against Tipsaravic. Served good, then lost my concentration a bit in the second set. Its something I have to learn to cut out; get yourself ahead early in the second set.

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

I'm glad to see he realises what went wrong and is determined to avoid it another time!

Having got over the gut-wrenching disappointment of the loss, I can look back with a little more detachment and say that he did darn well even to get to the final. After all, it was only his 9th match since the long lay-off.

Good luck next week Andy!

(but please get rid of the face-fungus, the Fuzzy Muzzy look isn't good!)

Drew · Oct 8, 2007

Glad to hear about his reflections....was out most of Sunday so followed the score only...when I saw him take the first set 6-0 I feared the worst...honestly I would have been happier if he had won the first set 7-6(8) or something...that would have kept him tight I believe and he would have won.