AO Round 1 : Murray v Tsonga

Ratty · County player

AO Round 1 : Murray v Tsonga

seagull · Hall of fame

Gutted but I said it was a nightmare draw.

Tsonga is such a dangerous player (saw him play Benneteau at Wimbledon this year and was very impressed)...however if Andy had played him later in the tournament it may have been different. This reminded me a bit of the Babhdatis match at Wimbledon with Andy just being very flat.

I wonder if playing Kooyong was a mistake?

wolf · Tennis legend

If anyone stayed up to watch and wants to do a report then feel free.

DUSTY DICK · Club Coach

Gutted with the result but Tsonga was never gonna be a pushover and has started the year well. If Andy had won I think he would have gone deep into the second week. Still he's started the year with a title and back in the top 10 and there's plenty of tennis ahead so need to panic just yet.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

MrBaseliner wrote:

Argh, gutted. A grand slam always loses the edge for me when the Brit interest goes out. Tut tut to Murray but well done on a good effort from Baker [...]

Know what you mean, MrB: the whole thing goes kinda flat once that point is reached! cry

There are a couple of reports on the mtach on The Times site already, including comments from Barry Flatman, but this is from today's Scotsman, for a change:

Murray blames first round defeat on 'inexperience'

ANDY Murray's Australian Open campaign ended in the first round with a loss to unseeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga at Melbourne Park today. The Scot went down 5-7 4-6 6-0 6-7 (5-7) to Tsonga the man who ended Tim Henman's Grand Slam career as he failed to hit the heights of his victory in the Qatar Open in Doha earlier this month. Murray, seeded ninth for the tournament, was the highest ranked player to bow out on the opening day after losing in four sets to the Frenchman in just over three hours on Rod Laver Arena. But Murray, who is still yet to progress past the fourth round of a major in nine attempts, is confident he will quickly recover from this latest setback having missed nearly fourth months of last season due to back and wrist injuries.

"I want to stay in the top 10," said Murray. "Winning four tournaments in the last few years I know I've got the potential to challenge for Grand Slams in the future, but I still have a little bit of inexperience and in that match that showed today." "But the more Grand Slams I play and the more big matches I play, I'll learn from them and won't make the mistakes that I did today." Murray made 27 unforced errors for the match compared to Tsonga's 61 but was undone by the Frenchman's 57 winners to 38. The Scot admitted it was hard to play against a player as unpredictable as Tsonga, who also beat Australia's top-ranked player Lleyton Hewitt on his way to making the semi-finals in Adelaide in the lead-up to the tournament.

"He's been like that since the juniors," he said of the big-hitting 22-year-old, who is now ranked 38 in the world and reached the fourth round at Wimbledon last year. "The most important thing is to get his serve back because he's obviously got a very good serve but I didn't make enough returns at the start of the match to have a chance of really breaking him. I didn't put enough returns in court with enough depth to let his inconsistency be a problem at the start of the match and it was only at the end when I started to do that. I felt worse a couple of years ago when I lost in the first round here and got absolutely smoked and physically was in bad shape," he said. "But (this year) I did all the right preparation and worked very hard on my game. I'm obviously disappointed that I didn't win the match, but I gave it my best effort out there. You can come away from matches feeling less disappointed if you've given it everything you've got, you've prepared properly and you feel that you've improved as a tennis player."

In a disappointing day for the British, their only other representative in the singles at this tournament also bowed out after qualifier Jamie Baker went down in four sets to Croatia's 20th seed Ivo Karlovic 4-6 4-6 7-6 4-6. Murray, though, was delighted to see his fellow Scot qualify for this year's event. "It's obviously great to qualify for a Grand Slam," he said of his Davis Cup team mate. "Jamie's one of the hardest workers that I know, so obviously he deserves it."

Baker, meanwhile, enjoyed his Australian Open experience as he took on the big-serving Karlovic in front of a packed and noisy crowd on court seven as both players came in for plenty of support from Melbourne's large Croatian and British ex-pat communities. "There was a good atmosphere, there was a lot of support for both of us actually," Baker said. "It's always difficult playing when you are playing someone that has a serve as big as that, but I kept a guy ranked number 20 in the world on the court for three-and a-half hours and I don't think the difference of 200 ranking spots showed that much."

* Judging by the reports I've seen, Andy himself seemed a bit "flat" when he met the press for the inevitable post mortem after the match! hmm

I'm a bit puzzled by that "inexperience" thing, too...

** At least "Big Bruv" and "the Beast of Belarus" will have a chance to extract a measure of revenge from the French camp in the first round of the doubles & there's also the progress of Aucks & Querrey to track, though they have a tough task facing them &, needless to say, they're in the same quarter of the draw as the 12th seeds!

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

Sheddie wrote:

Absolutely gutted about this one, Andy fought hard but his A game just didn't show up at all ! So many times in set 4 that I thought, now he's just going to up it a fraction, get that break and you could see that 5th set tantalisingly with Tsonga starting to slightly slow up on the serve. But crucial errors came at the worst possible times, you just can't afford to double fault at 4-4 in a tiebreak......

Andy did seem far too passive today, just putting the ball back in play and hoping that Tsonga would shank himself out of the match and he didn't really change those tactics....I don't know whether it was nerves due to the closeness of the match or the new balls or the heat but he didn't seem capable of being aggressive and really hitting through Tsonga as we've seen him do in the past, when he tried to the ball flew out. He did use these counter-punching tactics a lot in Doha, maybe got stuck in a bit of a rut with them.....what Davydenko and Wawrinka lacked was a really huge serve to put the pressure on and Tsonga had that

Agree with much of that. A very worrying display from Andy. Let's face it, Tsonga did not play that well. Though he hit plenty of great shots, he lost his nerve serving for the first set and did the same when serving for the match. Even his tennis in the tiebreak wasn't up to much; just happened that Murray's was even worse.

Passive Andy drives me up the wall. Even if he had won the match in 5 sets, he would have used so much energy chasing down balls that he would inevitably be struggling during the later stages of the tournament. He has the big shots, he can serve and volley, he can be aggressive on the return, especially returning second. Yet he chose not to.

What happened to the serve? It looked decent in Doha apart from the final. It was hopeless in the opening set, then he appeared to take the pace off it later on in the match.

Anyone see an aggressive double-handed backhand crosscourt all match? The shot that almost beat Nadal this time last year. I can recall the odd power backhand down the line but nowhere near enough of them. Volleys look good but lobs and passing shots were desperately poor throughout the match.

Andy practically said to Tsonga "If you want the match it's yours". I don't get why when plan A quite clearly isn't working, he doesn't move to plan B. That spell from 5-5 in the opening set to 0-2 in the second was just truly awful; especially given that Tsonga had lost his nerve serving for the set the first time around.

It's frustrating waiting for Andy to become the player that we all think he can be. Clearly he is some way off challenging for Grand Slam titles right now. To win a slam he has to attack. Passive tennis might win him a Masters Event at some stage but it isn't going to win him a Slam as the physical demands of best of 5 sets tennis, especially in the heat, are simply too great.

christian · Intermediate Club Player

I only caught the last 3 or 4 games and the tie break but I think the thing that most worried me was how Murray seemed to let Tsonga dictate the points. I think somone mentioned this earlier but it was as if his game plan was to force a mistake but Tsonga didn't look like doing that apart from one bad service game.

Surely Andy has miles more experience at this level than Tsonga and simply shouldn't be caught cold in this manner. I accept that Tsonga is a very good player but it was as if Andy had no real game plan. Obviously after winning Doha all the talk was of Andy's new coaching set-up working wonders. Will it now be questioned in the same manner as Andy just seemed lost at times and lacking any real plan of how to hurt Tsonga.

Extremely frustrating really especially when it seemed he was at least physically in his best shape ever.

JAMES4578 · Social player

It was really disappointing but hopefully andy will learn from this.Certainly overall a strong performance from Tsonga but a below par Murray and the comeback didn't quite materialise. Not proactive enough and 2nd serve a weakness at times. Some work for his new team but I think Andy will takepositives from this and come back stronger. Tough opener and not quite his day.

-- Edited by JAMES4578 at 22:21, 2008-01-14

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

There is still not a word of this on bt.net, which is rather an obvious omission! Can somebody who actually saw the match do a report? BBCi didn't put it on until the afternoon, so I only saw the first set and a couple of games of the second as I had to go out. I recorded the rest but have no idea when I will have time to watch it.

Any offers? PM a report to me if you cannot post on bt.net, and I will put it on.

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

Jo-Wilfred Tsonga put an early end to Andy Murray's Australian Open, defeating the Scot in four sets 7-5 6-4 0-6 7-6. Coming into the tournament, expectations were high for the british number one but a tricky first round opponent soon had Murray in deep trouble, and while Andy did look to be back on track in the third set, he let the match slip away in a desperately poor fourth set tiebreak.

Andy started slowly. He was fortunate not to concede his serve straight away but soon found himself down an early break as the aggressive Tsonga dominated rally after rally, running around his backhand to strike inside-out forehands that pushed Murray back, then dashed to the net to put away straightforward volleys.

Serving for the first set, Tsonga lost his nerve. Andy did enough to recover the break but failed to take advantage, with a shocking service game of his own gifting the frenchman a second chance to serve out the set which he did without further trouble.

At the start of the second set Murray looked comfortable serving at 40-30 but again he let Tsonga dominate the points and paid the price as three straight points went against the serve for an early break. There was little pressure on the server until on break pont against the Tsonga serve at 3-5, Murray made an extraordinary shot selection, going for a drop shot only to put it wide, when in total control of the rally. This shot cost him the set.

Into the third set Murray finally woke up from his slumber and started to take the game to Tsonga. He gained an early break then another, and soon the set became a chance for both players to relax before continuing the battle in the fourth set.

Having played aggressively in the third set it was difficult to understand why Murray should decide to go back to the timid approach that cost him the opening two sets. Even so Andy did have the chance to break early in the fourth set but fortune favoured the frenchman as a lucky netcord resulted in a winning volley, denying Murray the opportunity to pass.

Serving at 4-4 Andy seemed in serious trouble at 15-40 but found a couple of big serves to bring the score back to deuce. Unfortunately he then threw away the next two points with a poor lob ultimately costing him the break. Presented with the chance to serve out the match, Tsonga lost his nerve completely. A double fault taking the score to 5-5.

Into the tiebreak Andy started very nervously but somehow managed to win the first two points. By this stage both players were clearly struggling with nerves and the standard of play was hardly worthy of the top 100. A poor drop shot from Murray gave away the mini-break. He then double faulted to present Tsonga with a mini-break and the chance to win the match if he could win both his service points. Yet another error made it 5-5 but a big serve took Tsonga to match point. Andy controlled the rally only to fire an aggressive forehand well wide.

Regular Murray watchers would have struggled to recognise the Scot given the standard of tennis coming from his side of the court. All his trademark shots seemed to be missing the target or simply not in view at all. Lobs went wide, long or barely made it over the net. Passing shots were little better. Only his volleys were up to the usual standard.

In truth Andy deserved to lose this match. On this form he would have been fortunate to beat anyone inside the top 50. Jo-Wilfred Tsonga hit plenty of excellent shots but struggled so badly to contain his own nerves that it was hard to believe that Murray hadn't taken the match into a final set.

-- Edited by kundalini at 12:47, 2008-01-15

wolf · Tennis legend

Thanks Kundalini. I'll just put it up.

Drew · Jan 15, 2008

Kundalini's report is spot on - thanks.

The morning after BBC radio 5 had a phone in called 'Has Murray really go what it takes'...also some other english press were calling him 'Andy McHenman'.

I absolutely despair at sections of our press. They are lower than spit in evolutionary terms.

They AO has a limited history of top seeds going out early.....

In 2002 both the No 1 seeds lost in the first round....that was the world No 1 and 2 at that time....Leyton Hewitt managed to overcome that loss and was still world No 1 by the next AO.

He his 20...and a 14-8 record in slams.

Im sure when Federer lost* in the first round of slams he was disappointed....but very focused afterwards....and I am sure that Andy will learn and move on.

Best rest assured if Andy thinks at some point in time he needs 'one mentor' around him so he can achieve a GS title then he will.

I think this may inspire Mr Murray not to loose in the first round of the next GS.

*Wimbledon 1999 + 2000 + Roland Garros 1999, 2002 + 2003

john · Top national player

Yeah Drew, I heard the McHenman comments too on Talksport. People emailing saying yet another British loser etc. Incredible really, but give it a day or two and it will die down and the morons will go back to discussing who the next Newcastle manager will be.

Tim was on 5Live Sports Extra this morning doing a quick phone interview. He basically said you know, that Andy was in great form and you know, this is just a very minor blip you know, so you know he's not worried about Andy at all you know.

He also commented a little on how hard the upcoming Davis Cup tie was going to be but said that Andy had exactly the right attitude and wouldn't let the pressure of having to win his matches get to him.

To me the most interesting thing he said was when he was asked if he thought that Andy might be struggling because he now has the added pressure of being top 10 and being favourite and expected to win most of his matches now rather than being the underdog he has been mostly so far. Tim came straight out and said that was a load of rubbish and that when you go out on court, seedings and rankings don't matter and it's just you and your gameplan.

He also made some comments about how we don't prepare our youngsters well enough for the transition into the seniors tour. Said that if he could go back to his teenage years he'd do things very differently to how he did and that there is a lot of young talent in this country that has gone to waste in the past.

Anyone else hear this?

steven · Tennis legend

Excellent report, kundalini, really sums up what went wrong. The big difference between the constructive criticism going on here and the rubbish being talked in other circles is that we are really disappointed about this one match (especially given the opportunities winning woudld have given Andy to go deep into the draw) but not losing the faith longer term.

Also re. the McHenman rubbish - the sad thing is that calling Andy this implicitly assumes that Tigger was useless when of course he was nothing of the sort!

helki · Futures qualifying

I didn't see all the match but from kundalini's report it's as though the occasion somehow got to Andy. Perhaps missing out on the GS in 2007 is part of the explanation. Provided he learns from the experience I can only see him being stonger for it in the future.