Well at least Andy himself recognised that his serve wasn't at his best tonight.  Not sure about his thoughts that with the roof and heavier conditions both their serves were sitting up more and they wre both able to go after said serves.  Probably a little effect, but more re his second serve he just didn't ruddy serve it well, often too slow and badly placed.

He and the commentators seemed more happy with his play from the back of the court than I was. Not bad, but I am sure I have often seen him striking the ball quite a bit more cleanly and consistently than he was tonight.

I'd say an OK performance, a bit patchy and definitely will need to improve somewhat in the second week.

Oh, and the through the legs shot was ridiculous ( I was kinda OK with him doing it once at Queens ) and time he cut it NOW before it really costs him sometime and / or he really fires someone up.

The options in his mind when the ball is in that position should not include "Will I try my smart trick shot ?"

-- Edited by indiana on Friday 24th of June 2011 11:09:21 PM

The trick shot could be a motivation for an opponent (although I think its more a case of his court placement when it happens than design) but getting under an opponents skin can also help. 50-50 I think.

Ratty wrote:

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RJA wrote:

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On a more positive note I must say that it was a pleasure to watch a Murray match on the BBC with neither of the twin idiots (Lloyd and Castle) commentating on it.

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Yo, fo' real!!! Mac and Rusedski are really good, IMO.

Pity they had Virginia Wade for Azarenka v Hantuchova, though. Mix incredibly annoying Home Counties drawl with ghastly hint of South African, and you have about the most irritating voice in the entire world. And since a pleasant voice is (one might think) pretty high on the required qualities for a TV commentator, why the hell do the BBC spend my licence money on this bloody woman?

And her girlish squeals in Robson v Kerber were just pathetically unprofessional...

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I can look past her accent but not her utter lack of professionalism. I don't know if you watched any of Eurosport's French Open coverage but they had Wade in the studio. After Federer beat Djokovic she was so excited that she could barely speak. They had to let someone else speak first so that she could regain her composure.

Rusedski's accent actually irritates me but I can give him a pass on it because he so obviously knows what he is talking about and doesn't go off on ridiculous tangents. If he sarts talking about something unrelated to the match it is normally interesting i.e the story of Ljubucic's escape from war torn Bosnia as a teenager.

And now Monfils loses, while Nadal closed out the 3rd fast.

Lukasz Kubot has beaten Monfils in 4 sets.

So if it Andy can get past Gasquet, his quarter final opponent will be Kubot or Lopez.

Nadal won the third set  6 - 0  so he's still a slight semi final block.  He plays Del Potro ( has beaten Simon ) in the last 16.  

Edit :  OK, noone had said any of that before I slowly wrote the above   

-- Edited by indiana on Saturday 25th of June 2011 02:11:12 PM

Surprisingly Andy is first match on centre court tomorrow. I would imagine that the BBC will be unhappy about not having it in the usual prime time slot.