AO R4 - Andy v Fernando Verdasco

goldfish · Futures qualifying

RE: AO R4 - Andy v Fernando Verdasco

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

Have to wait for the post match interview. I guess he hasn't recovered from his illness.

DUSTY DICK · Club Coach

Gutted. What a pity. Read on Murray World that he has not been well in recent days with flu like symptoms. Wonder if he's still not feeling well as it was just strange from him. He wouldn't play like that for no reason. He's too good a player and too clever to just not bother.
Whatever so gutted that he's not gonna be there at the end but his day will come and his year is still off to a flyer.

seagull · Hall of fame

Really disappointing performance

One think he needs to be cleverer on is his challenges..why is he challenging 3 times in the first 3 games of a set? And he seems to get most of them wrong anyway.

Felt the turning point was start of 4th set when after dominating set 3 he let Verdasco get off to a flyer.

GavinUK · Lower Club Player

What a very strange match. I know people can just have bad days, but he played so well in the first set, then his energy level just evaporated in the second. That can happen too, but then he was back in form in the 3rd.

He is far too good a player to have just thrown in the towel.

There has to have been something wrong. Such a shame as I was convinced he would be in the semi-final up against Rafa.

-- Edited by GavinUK at 11:45, 2009-01-26

goldfish · Futures qualifying

Andy's post match interview from the AO site:

http://www.australianopen.com/en_AU/news/interviews/2009-01-26/200901261232959052593.html

He refuses to use his physical condition as an excuse but the way he played is so unlike him these days, that I don't believe it didn't have an impact. Having said that, Fed played pretty well last year with glandular fever or at least whilst recovering from it, so it's' important that Andy doesn't use his illness as an excuse. As he says, if he's on the court, he should be fit enough to play.

I'm still totally gutted though as it will all be fodder for his critics but it's not Andy who makes himself the favourite and he honestly did look in good enough form pre tournament to have a shot at it.

GavinUK · Lower Club Player

This is a quote from Andy after the match taken from the BBS site.

"I don't think it was anything to do with physical, concentration or my game," Murray said afterwards.

"He played too good for me - that's what happens. I'm not here to try and make excuses for why I lost."

While Verdasco certainly improved his game in the 2nd set, I don't think he played too good for Andy, it's more like Andy's tallent just went walk-about for 2 sets. (I'm told that can happen down-under). A normal Andy could have put up a better fight than he did in the 2nd and 4th sets.

goldfish · Futures qualifying

One fan's view from MTF:

'Well, the position of leading talented headcase is opening up with Safin's retirement - Andy and Gasquet are duking it out.'

wolf · Tennis legend

I didn't even bother to get up to watch because I thought I knew he would win.

christian · Intermediate Club Player

Just gutted. Didn't get up quite as early as some but was up at 5.30 on the sky+. 1st set so good but was a bit concerned to see showboating at the end. I don't know about anyone else i was convinced he was injured but then later not so sure. There was a point in the 2nd set when he didn't seem to be able to smash the ball properly and it was bizarre.

Agree about the challenges as well, it was another thing I thought of, he seems to waste them so often that it's just silly. Very very frustrating as I really felt like he'd grown up in the last 6 months and was a proper player now. So many of the drop shots at the wrong time was another frustration.

Think my biggest annoyance is it will give the ridiculous anti-murray mob more ammo. Also with some of Fed in particulars comments i really wanted Andy to show them. Just really gutted.

S&V · Club Coach

Gutted here too. Not much else I can share at this point.

indiana · Tennis legend

I may think of something more coherent to say tomorrow.

Today, I am still in shock at some of what I saw that in the end looked like "please Fernando, miss it ! " It didn't even look like the old deliberately passive Andy, it looked like a living in hope Andy.

There has to be some background reasons for it, be it his illness or something surely.

What I can't help thinking though is so many of us are in shock or gutted, I just feel sorry for Andy, how must he feel !!

Oh, one coherent thought for Andy, before Wimbledon last year you never passed a Grand Slam last 16, and just verged on the top 10. Now you go out at the last 16 stage in 5 sets to a world no 15 that folk seem to think played really well for him., and we think it is total disasater. You have come so far and you are still quite early on that journey and I still believe will go such further.

airsmashers · County player

Oh well there will be other chances, credit to Fernando who is not the same man Murray destroyed in St petersburg last year, but Murray was too passive for large parts of that match the big difference I noticed was the poor length of each shot by Murray

Vandenburg · Futures level

i agree
verdasco did not win the match, murrray lost it.

verdasco is good player but not really a steady top 10 and never a top 5, murrays returns wernt at there best.
when playing hispanics alll you gota do is mix it up because there not the most intelligant souls and tend to get upset easily.( for example at wimbledon)

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

Managed to catch some of the match before my exam this morning, and it seemed to be a very strange performance from Murray.

It was like we had gone back a year or two in the way that he was playing with a lot of the game being very passive, and not in the good sense that he was trying to make the opponent make errors but was just waiting for Verdasco to miss, which unfortunately for him he wasn't.

Maybe Murray thought that Verdasco wasn't going to keep the ball in court, or maybe he suspected that he wasn't going to be able to keep up his level of play for the whole 5 sets, but whatever it was, it didn't work as Verdasco played probably one of his better matches of his career.

Someting must have been up for Murray to play like he did though, although I'm not sure that I'm 100% convinced by the illness possibility - not that I don't believe Murray when he says he was ill, but it seemed to be completely the wrong way to play if he was struggling physically.

I've played matches before when I haven't been 100% and you play to try and get the match over quicker, whether that be a very aggressive strategy and go for winners, or play loads of dropshots and serve/volley to shorten the points - you don't do what Murray did and wait for your opponent to miss by playing passively - it just seemed a strange decision to play like he did if he was struggling.

Murray will learn from this though, and hopefully by Wimbledon he can have a much better run in a tournament and not lose to players, all due respect to Verdasco, he should beat. (I don't think Murray's a threat at the French Open at all until he has a good result on clay)

EDIT: Murray screws up the perfect draw then - the only the top 8 seed not to make the QF's and the closest it has ever been completed.

And after the criticism that people have given to Djokovic and Federer about their comments, it does look like they may have been right with what they said (although I think that had Murray not lost today, they would have had a Rafa Benitez moment)

-- Edited by ForeverDelayed at 16:40, 2009-01-26