2009 French Open (Roland-Garros) - R2: Andy vs Potito Starace

Drew · May 27, 2009

RE: 2009 French Open (Roland-Garros) - R2: Andy vs Potito Starace

Ratty · County player

Good in patches. Horrible in patches. Some expansive tennis. Some spells of passive play, sitting far too deep, not enough penetration on his groundshots, far too many landing short. Starace's forehand and especially drop shot, dominating the second and early part of the third sets.

The coaching team need to keep telling him to make things happen, both on his first groundstroke after the serve and on the return. His movement on the clay simply isn't good enough to let natural clay courters dictate the play and still win the match.

There were spells when Andy looked impressive. Serve opening up the court, big forehand, rush to net to finish the point with a crisp volley. Backhand down the line was the dominant shot of the opening set. Yet there were so many points in which he had the chance to attack yet backed off the killer shot and sometimes ultimately paid the price. His aggressive forehand can be a great shot yet it seemed to go missing for a set.

Please don't take offence, but why do you always focus on the negatives? Starace was on fire for a about an hour, and probably would have been doing the same to anyone.

You seem to expect Murray to play brilliantly every minute of every match. It just doesn't happen like that, for any player.

The Hoose · Satellite level

Tipsarevic up next...

The Hoose · Satellite level

Andymonium wrote:

The Hoose wrote:

He's supposed to hate losing as well.

funny comment at 1-5 down. he really must hate losing. he made u regret that post huh? haha

After Steven posted to say that despite not liking bananas, Andy was eating one, I was merely commenting that despite not liking losing, he was also losing at that stage.

But yes, glad to see that his hatred of losing came to the fore after that, and no doubt he'd stopped eating bananas by the end of the match too.

-- Edited by The Hoose on Wednesday 27th of May 2009 01:32:21 PM

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

He got there in the end, but he'll need to improve if he is to go much further.

Great comeback in the third set, but Starace definately choked it away, although Murray did finally manage to get his level up to a good standard.

Starace played a great second set and the start of the third, but that the limit of his ability and the fact he's dropped outside the top 100 says something about what has happened to him.

The good news is that he won the match and having an early test may hopefully warm him up nicely for the rest of the tournament.

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

Well, if Andy is going to have a mid-match melt-down, better against Starace than against a better player.

I have to say I'm a bit worried about the next match, Tipsy does have a habit of taking out the top players (and then losing the next match, lol)

angry1 · Lower Club Player

Madeline wrote:
I have to say I'm a bit worried about the next match, Tipsy does have a habit of taking out the top players (and then losing the next match, lol)

That was very much my impession too,but according to the tennisinsight website he is an unimpressive 6-18 against top 10 ranked opponents.Mind you they also have Andy at number 4 in their clay ratings and Djokovic 6th on hard courts.