15-0

30-15

40-15

4-2

15-0

15-15

15-30

15-40

30-40

5-2 (Murray to serve for the Match)

Julia Carrot wrote:

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Phew! I didn't even get up for this match, really needed to catch up on sleep. Why did he lose the 1st set?

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 Oops, yes thanks Murrayman for the updates. It is appreciated !

having woken up to watch this - maybe I'm just a tad tired/grumpy but here is how I'd sum it up... the usual weaknesses:

poor 1st serve% despite not going for much pace

2nd serve inviting opponent to attack

a few too many dodgy forehands

for long spells, too many balls in mid court - inviting his opponent to hit winners

Harrison won a lot of the long rallies early on, but then he began to wilt. It would be nice to see Andy forcing errors with a good length rather than wait for his opponent to tire and cough up errors.

Nonetheless, I guess we'd expect him to get away with that strategy even against Monfils and Tsonga 9 times out of 10

Ratty wrote:

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MiloTheCat wrote:

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Nonetheless, I guess we'd expect him to get away with that strategy even against Monfils and Tsonga 9 times out of 10

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That says it all really - when your main strengths are a watertight defence, speed around the court, and superhuman patience and stamina - it's very effective isn't it!!!! 

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It is indeed against tbe vast majority of players.  But against the very very best you perhaps need more, and that to me could well include Tsonga, as it did once before at the Aussie Open.  Apart from general passiveness from his side, lack of length, which Milo pointed to, is one thing that has really killed Andy before.

[my occasional seve rant]And it will be great if and when he ever really starts improving that serve.  Seems a bit delusional about it.  Whenever it's pretty good for him, we get "I served well" or even "really well", whenever its terrible " "it was a bit off".  Don't know if it's a manhood thing that he can't admit it's been a long term serious weakness. I guess Lendl knows that as well, so maybe that's one of what Andy would describe as "the little things that can be improved on and we can work on together".  Will get away with it against such as Harrison, but...  Used to even have a giraffe by having on his ATP profile that he considered his serve the best part of his game.  Just checked, don't see it now or replaced by any of the many things he could have put ahead of his serve.[/my occasional serve rant]

I didn't see the match so can't really comment much more, but from what's been said here and on the radio he seems to have retreated from the controlled aggresion that seems to serve him pretty well, but that in my view he too often saves for when he then thinks he really needs it.  Pity, since I did think he was getting better that way. I did hear Andy himself say that he was standing too far back today and once he stepped up the court things improved, so I guess that's indicating that he did at one point try to take control more.

Madeline wrote:

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I watched all the match in bits during the day on the Eurosport Player, and it seemed to me that Andy did not play all that passively. In the first set he had so many unforced errors - not usually caused by passive play. But I also felt that he played nearer the baseline and with more attacking moves inside the court from the second set onwards. I also thought Harrison played really well, he does look like he could be something of a future star: give him some credit for the fact that he gave Andy a few problems. But like most young guns taking on a "name", he threw everything he had at Andy early on and could not keep up that standard through the rest of the match - although he never gave up, he was fighting to the end. Well done to him (and better done to Andy!)

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Interesting to hear an alternative view, which is the one I like more 

I did sign myself up to the eurosport player just earlier today, and then for some reason it was refusing to play me the Murray vs Harrison match with a message to come back later.  So, I shall, in the hope of seeing for myself.