john wrote:

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Woooo, best ever French Open performance from Andy!

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Technically it is, but I don't think the word best should be associated with that performance.

Murray's stats

Aces - 3
1st serve - 64%
DF's - 0
1st serve won - 68%
2nd serve won - 44%
Winners - 17
UE's - 42
Receiving points won - 53%
BP's - 11/17
Net approaches - 18/23

And a crucuial stat from Eysseric:

Unforced Errors - 72

He won in the end 'cos Eysseric is 18 and got tired in a five setter. This WC would have just put Andy out of a normal ATP event....

Ah well, onward. Hoping this is a wake up. Can't wait to be off the red stuff myself.

Andy Murray outlasted Jonathan Eysseric to win his opening round match at Roland Garros 6-2 1-6 4-6 6-0 6-2. Superior fitness was perhaps the only area in which Murray had the edge against the young frenchman, currently ranked 390 in the world, but in best of five set matches this is often enough to win.

A forehand pass for a winner brought Andy a break of serve in the opening game, though a subtle drop shot from Eysseric immediately levelled the score. Murray promptly broke again, this time courtesy of a double fault and he proceeded to run away with the opening set as his talented opponent made error after error. Andy didn't have to do much more than keep the ball in court to win the first set.

Murray lost concentration at the start of the second set losing 12 of the opening 16 points, many with careless errors. This time around it was the british number one making all the mistakes, a forehand unforced error into the net conceding one break of serve, while a shocking drop shot again into the net, lost him a second break.

The third set continued in a similar pattern. Another forehand unforced error into the net cost Andy his opening service game, while a terrible drop shot lost him a second break of serve. He recovered one break but despite treatment on his tiring muscles, Eysseric held onto for a two sets to one lead.

One way traffic in the fourth set as an exhausted Eysseric lost control of shot after shot, then lost interest in the set as he chose to save his remaining energy for the final set. Fewer errors from Andy in the fourth set but his level was still alarmingly low.

Into the fifth Murray gained an early break, more through errors than his own good play. During a long third game Andy saved five break points before conceding his serve with a poor backhand straight into the net. However he did manage to break his young opponent, this time recovering from 40-15 down as Jonathan's game collapsed. It was soon 5-1 but still time for another poor service game from Andy before breaking for a seventh consecutive time.

Overall, an alarming display from Murray, far too willing to sit deep behind his own baseline and hope for an error from his opponent. His touch was missing with the vast majority of his drop shots losing the point and several straightforward lobs landing long. There was little penetration on the serve and his return game was passive for much of the match. Just 17 winners in five sets tells its own story.

For me - disappointing.  I don't actually like watching Andy play, sacrilege, I know but that's me. For most of the match he was far too negative and one-dimensional and allowed an inexperienced player to dictate the match for streches at a time. He looked much better in the final two sets when he started to take the game to his opponent and be more aggressive. It's no use us whingeing on about the clay - it isn't going to go away, and he'll have to learn to play on it if he wants to be a real contender. I'll still be there supporting next match and hoping for another win.

This is really all rather silly.

Andy Murray is ranked 10 in the world. He had a pretty bad day today against a talented guy who was pumped up with nothing to lose. But he won. There's no crisis, and even if he'd lost, there still wouldn't be a crisis.

Chelsea lost to Barnsley (?) in the FA Cup. Djokovic was 5-1 down today in the first set against Gremlmayer. Federer nearly lost in the first round at Monte Carlo.

And why do you all take it so personally? Poor old Alex Bogdanovic in particular - what the hell's he done to upset you people?

To answer Arka's question, I was hugely impressed with Eysseric, after such a dreadful start many players would have folded but instead he upped his game and would have won if it had been best of 3. Forehand is a massive weapon, likes to run around the backhand and hit the off-forehand....troubled Murray consistently with this shot, only really started missing when he got tired in the 4th and a few blazing winners in the 5th nearly got him back into it. Good backhand aswell, great athlete - read the Murray dropshots particularly well, hitting a number of superb touch shots off them............I see no real weaknesses and crucially he's got a lot of variety....he can go far, surely he'll be around 150 by end of the year, at least

Btw, talking of junior no 1 I remember being very impressed by Thiemo De Bakker a year or so ago when he was ranked 400ish...where's he now ?

Ratty wrote:

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This is really all rather silly.

Andy Murray is ranked 10 in the world. He had a pretty bad day today against a talented guy who was pumped up with nothing to lose. But he won. There's no crisis, and even if he'd lost, there still wouldn't be a crisis.

Chelsea lost to Barnsley (?) in the FA Cup. Djokovic was 5-1 down today in the first set against Gremlmayer. Federer nearly lost in the first round at Monte Carlo.

And why do you all take it so personally? Poor old Alex Bogdanovic in particular - what the hell's he done to upset you people?

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For me it's a case of potential. I will support a player losing every single match 60 60 if I think they are fulfilling their potential and playing as well as they can. At the moment I don't think Murray is. Yes his season hasn't been too bad, yes it's not a crisis yet. BUT, he's not crushing opponents like he did a year ago even, he's not playing at the height of his game. The worry for me is that he wasn't playing as well as he could, and I want the players I like to play as well as they can.

It's a similar thing for Bogdanovic, I am disappointed that he's not playing as well as I know he can. And I'm beginning to worry that he never will. It's also why I will always jump to the defence of Tim Henman, he reached the limit of his talent, and went beyond what many though was his full potential. As a fan, I want to see Murray (and Bogdanovic) do the same.