Weeks 21-22 - Roland Garros men's main draw

RJA · Hall of fame

RE: Weeks 21-22 - Roland Garros men's main draw

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

Hopefully he can get past Chela but he'll need to improve his level significantly after that as his performances have not been impressive apart from the post-injury portion of the Berrer match.

Murray v Chela: head to head 6-1

on clay: RG 2009 6-2 6-2 6-1, Madrid 2010 6-3 6-3, RG 2010 6-2 6-7(5) 6-3 6-2

In those previous contests on clay, Chela's first serve hasn't done much damage

Chela's route to the quarters has involved defeating world numbers 120, 111, 35 and 169. From the stats it looks like he has just kept the ball in play and waited for them to decide the point.

-- Edited by kundalini on Tuesday 31st of May 2011 06:49:22 PM

RJA · Hall of fame

Just seen Andy's post match interview. He confirmed that he has a slight tear of his ankle tendon and from the sound of it it was a close run thing as to whether or not he played this match.

indiana · Tennis legend

Hmm, if both Chela and Andy are in passive wait for mistakes moods we could be in for some long rallies !

Anyway though, the main thing as always as far as I am concerned is that I hope Andy serves well ( for him ). For all we may ( and I do ) comment and moan about his attitude and his passive play at times his consistently biggest problem ( for years ! ) has been his serve, confirmed again during this tournament. It's so at risk as against his leading competitors. And he occasionally tries to claim it is an asset disbelief Yes, he can knock down a few aces which helps at times, but...

Seeing earlier some stats on second service points, I looked again at the ROCOH ATP stats : http://www.atpworldtour.com/Rankings/MatchFacts.aspx and his first serve in % stats remain relatively pretty bad for this year and his second serve % points won relatively awful ( which must be a real comment on the weakness of the second serve itself given his general play ) as against the general ATP players and the big 3 in particular.

One day, one year if he could get on a more level playing field with his serve, he might be quite a player !

RJA · Hall of fame

I actually thought that there was some very positive signs against Berrer (pre-injury) when it came to the serve, especially the second serve. I am not going to worry about the negatives of this match (Troicki) given that the injury was clearly on his mind. In fact lets give the lad some credit, a tear to the ankle tendon, even a slight one, really should have been the end of his tournament. I would like to see some his more ignorant critics play a tennis match in such circumstances.

At the end of the day we can analyse Andy's game all day long but we all know that the key is in his head. He has the ability to be a Grand Slam champion but for all his perfectionism he still doesn't quite believe that he belongs at the highest level and frankly I don't believe that any coach will be able to change that. It will only change by winning his first Grand Slam. Maybe he is going to need to bit of luck for that happen but if it does happen (and I still think it will) it could easily transform his game.

indiana · Tennis legend

Andy on his familiar Suzanne Lenglen court agan for his QF. On second after Sharapova vs Petkovic, who are on from 2 pm local, 1 pm BST. Apart from the red button and whatever other outlets, BBC 2 will be televising this from 3 pm.

It had been on my mind to come back here and show more general appreciation re Andy's efforts which I thought was maybe missing from my and other posts. So I can only second what I read now from RJA about how he has come through to the QFs in spite of his injury problems.

Yes, we can be quite analytical ( and I am one to be ) and may differ or concentrate on different areas. I make no apology for every so often coming back to his serve, a matter to my mind more of practice and technique than belief.

But at this French Open, Andy has suffered a pretty significant injury ( apparently worse than was thought ) and say what folk might about Berrer and Troika's faults, at the end of the day in spite of his problems, Andy is still in there. He came through where the others, more particularly Troika who was a real danger, with less mitigating factors faltered when it really mattered.

Credit to the guy for that !

-- Edited by indiana on Wednesday 1st of June 2011 01:13:41 AM

Mikeduke · County player

How many players have reached the semi finals of all four Grand Slams and never won one? It can't be a very long list!

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

Aaargh, don't jinx him, Mikeduke, he hasn't reached the semi yet! Though if it were not for the injury I would be pretty confident, a 6-1 H2H where the one was long ago is pretty convincing.

I just worry that playing on the injury might do permanent damage, or damage enough to keep him out of the game for months.

steven · Tennis legend

Mikeduke wrote:
How many players have reached the semi finals of all four Grand Slams and never won one? It can't be a very long list!

The only players I can find who have done this in the open era (and didn't win a grand slam title before the open era either) are:

Tom Okker - USO R/U 1968, 1 SF in each slam 1969-78

Miloslav Mecir - USO R/U 1986, AO R/U 1989, RG SF 1987, Wim SF 1988

David Nalbandian - Wim RU 2002, USO SF 2003, RG SFs 2004/6, AO SF 2006

Turning to British records, I believe only five British men have ever reached the semi-finals of at least three slams (Andy Murray, Tim Henman, Mike Sangster, Bunny Austin & Fred Perry), with Perry the only one so far to have made the semis at all four.

The last British women to make the semis at all four slams (since Virginia Wade never made the semis at RG and Sue Barker never made the semis at the USO) were Ann Haydon-Jones, Angela Mortimer and Christine Truman in the 1960s.

You have to think that Andy's ankle is the main obstacle to him matching these 'records' but Chela isn't a pushover either!

-- Edited by steven on Wednesday 1st of June 2011 09:37:43 AM

RJA · Hall of fame

Madeline wrote:
I just worry that playing on the injury might do permanent damage, or damage enough to keep him out of the game for months.

He did say that if he goes over on it again that it could be "very bad", presumably just running on it doesn't present a risk otherwise there is no way he would be playing.

Given what he said yesterday I cannot see him playing at Queens.

RJA · Hall of fame

Andy could be on court a bit earlier than expected. Sharapova raced through the first set 6-0 and has an early break in the second.

RJA · Hall of fame

Andy on court now.

So longer as the ankle is okay I really can't see too many problems. Chela is a solid player but he isn't in Murray's league.

steven · Tennis legend

... so of course Chela gets an early break!

jmjhb · Lower Club Player

Far too many useless dropshots going into the net at the moment.

jmjhb · Lower Club Player

2 breaks down now, it looks like he's got no game plan whatsoever.