Andy's best win

murrayfan99 · Lower Club Player

Andy's best win

steven · Tennis legend

Interesting question. Like you say, it's difficult to measure how much an apparently bad performance by an opponent might be due to Andy getting under their skin, but I'd go for one of the matches where Andy was aggressive, took complete control and was making shots from all over the place, i.e. playing to his strengths, something he does so rarely these days.

So, probably one of the wins against Duckboy, of which I'd say the pick was when he beat him in straight sets at Wimbledon in 2006, even if he did play a dodgy dropper on the match point he won!

I've just found the report at http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/5137408.stm and Andy himself said he thought that was his best win up to that time. It's a bit sad that I can't think of a better one since, though if he'd beaten Nadal in that AO match, I'd have gone for that.

-- Edited by steven at 04:54, 2008-04-25

Salmon · Tennis legend

It has to be the one against Federer in Cincy! He was almost divine on hard courts then and this unseeded player comes and beats him in straights.

But my favourite Andy match, I think, is the one against Ginepri in Cincinnati in 2006 after he'd beaten Federer. He should not have played that match given how physically tired he was and he had to fight his body as much he had to fight Ginepri.

The win against Hewitt in San Jose comes a close second.

Ahh... good times. They'll be back again.

RedCabbage · Club Coach

Aside from the obvious Fed and Roddick victories I think the 2007 Indian Wells QF win against Haas was tremendous. Hass had come into the tournament on great form having won Memphis and got to the QFs without breaking a sweat. Of course Andy had to draw NoDjo in the next round...

murrayfan99 · Lower Club Player

Thanks for those suggestions - it's interesting that nobody has mentioned matches from late 07 when he had a good run to nearly qualify for the masters cup or early 08.

My underlying concern is that he almost never goes out and outplays top 20 players - hence the Davydenko-with-style tag.

Its strange that people often talk about his "inconsistency". I would like to see more inconsistency i.e. see him blow away a top 20 player from time to time.

Of course his best performance seemed to be against Nadal at the AO last year when a hawkeye challenge would have yielded a break point in the 5th - but that doesnt count since he didnt win!

I got the DVD of the Fed match from Dubai - he did play well (incl serving well) but it wasnt the real Fed he beat. [In fact the Fed looked more like Kevin the teenager at times]

So it seems the best wins are really quite some time ago.

murrayfan99 · Lower Club Player

Thought I'd bump this old thread up to find out if anyone thinks that the Gasquet win is now Andy's best win - according to the original starting point which was

What I mean by best win is what was the best player (playing reasonably well) that he's beaten
I know that under other criteria the Gasquet win is without question the best.

steven · Tennis legend

Gasquet was playing some of his best tennis for two and a half sets of that match, so I think hanging in there long enough to make him crack (and even then he didn't play that badly) and then hardly giving him a sniff of a chance to get the momentum back easily fits that definition.

john · Top national player

I agree, that's definitely now Andy's best win

indiana · Tennis legend

I am surprised that his Gonzalez win from 2 sets to 1 down in the US Open in 2006 didn't get a mention above. Gonzalez was striking the ball really well, and Andy hung in there and turned it round.

In fact a little bit like the Gasquet win, which I now actually also think is among his best.

I would also put up there Roddick at Wimbledon in 2006, Haas at Indian Wells on 2007 and the 2 Federer wins. I am not quite sure which I would put as "the best". The most dramatic is undoubtably yesterdsay''s win v Gasquet.

I really do not agree that he never seems to go out and outplay top 20 players, and I haven't got it to hand, but I would think his record against top 20 players is pretty good. I really doubt they all just happen to have off-days when Andy plays them smile

OK, he has maybe not blown away top 20 opponents, but it's not so easy, and perhas he does sometimes take a bit of time to have a look at players, although that's maybe more of a fault against lesser players.