Xenon123 wrote:

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That was amazing! Andy played brilliantly, and I was so happy that he won despite sometimes when he let Hewitt back into the match. Does anyone know how many breaks of serve there were in each set of that match?
I thought that Andy and his girlfriend were adorable at the end, but was annoyed that Mark Petchey wasn't there. Anyone know why he wasn't? I loved Andy's speech at the end. He reallly got the crowd on his side. Funny thing is that I think he mentioned everyone in his thank you speech apart from his family and coach (although I guess he may have done that in the prior interview). I think that Andyhas got the respect of all of the top players after this tournament. It was really interesting to see a match between the 2 who are really similarly alike in their matchplay. At one point, ironically the commentator said that Lleyton was slightly better at excecuting it though.

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It was so impressive the way he kept on producing brilliant tennis even though Hewitt just wouldn't lie down and kept fighting back throughout that 3rd set even though many times I thought he was down and out. So many other players would have crumpled under that pressure especially after missing 2 matchpoints.

Maybe Petch wanted to spend more time with his young family before joining up with Andy in the States at a later date ? He's been on the road with Andy for such a long time

At the start of the year I was worried that in a Murray - Hewitt match, Hewitt would be too good as they both play the same game and I thought that Hewitt played it better. Now my opinions have been completely reversed - Murray plays the conter-punching style better than Hewitt !!

Peter wrote:

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I wonder why Petchey wasn't there. He must be really proud for Andy after all the hard work they've put in together It's great of Andy showing such enthusiasm with the speech, he's always been really great with the fans and showing appreciation. I agree, Murray's returning is now among the best in the world, the topspin lob is a new weapon in his amoury, he used it a few times at Wimbledon last year but he's been working on it and is now using it more and more. It was great that he cut out the dropshots and used them more to surprise Hewitt

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And he worked the drop shots better than sometimes when he used them before at wrong times, or too often. I was sort of surprised that at the end, Murray held his nerve better than Lleyton. When was the last time Murray had a tie break in a set? I remember that he used to be very good at them, and often won them. I was very impressed that despite the fact that Murray obviously had nerves (as he may have won earlier if he hadn't), he held it all together brilliantly.

gizmobaby wrote:

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where can we hope to see andy's ranking after this. also a big thank u to everyone who posted updates much apprecited. felt like i was watching it.

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That's fine gizmobaby, pleased you enjoyed the updates. There will be live commentary here on Andy's matches in Memphis this week.

Andy will be into the top 50 now. He's very close to overtaking Henman and Rusedski and becoming British no 1. Maybe he will do it before Indian Wells

I expect Hewitt would have seen the Roddick match and realised he was in for a difficult match but I don't think he would have expected that Murray could hang tough for 3 long and gruelling sets.

I expect he would have been surprised at the quality of Andy's shot-making and serving because those two aspects of his game have shot up several notches this week

 

Apparently she is Kim Sears daughter of Daniela Hantuchova's coach. Well that's what MTF think.

A few thoughts on the match:

1) The serving was horrible from both players. Hewitt managed to find 2 aces when matchpoint down but otherwise it was a very poor serving display from the aussie. He was let down by 10 or more double faults while winning few cheap point on first serve. Amazingly his direction on first serve down the middle was off by a foot or more. A decent serving display from Andy and this would have been a straightforward win. A couple of awful serving games in the final set gifted Hewitt the chance to break back.

2) Andy's backhand is a great shot. At least 15 winners from the backhand side. The extra pace when he unleashes his double-handed backhand seems to surprise opponents. Both Hewitt and Roddick struggled to cope with the sudden acceleration. Last year he was somewhat reluctant to use this weapon, and while it misfired against Chela in the Australian Open, it is still his best shot and his best hope of winning points during long rallies.

3) Neither Hewitt nor Roddick's tennis matches their reputation right now. Both seem to lack confidence and although Hewitt fought hard, he was always in trouble in the third set. In contrast to Roddick, Lleyton did play some smart tennis especially towards the end of the first set when he repeatedly took the initiative, taking Andy wide on the backhand side, then coming to the net to finish the points as Andy was forced to float single handed shots from beyond the tramlines.

4) At his best Andy takes the game to his opponent. Now on a slow paced court against a superb counterpuncher like Lleyton you don't want to be left stranded at the net and there were times when Andy did nothing wrong, only to see the ball whizz past him as he attacked the net. But during the long rallies it was usually Hewitt that emerged the winner as Andy made the first mistake. In the second set Andy went for his shots and was rewarded. Lobs, drop shots, return winners, huge groundstrokes - it was winner after winner. Throughout the match it was the player that took the initiative that got rewarded; even if that initiative was to hit a slow sliced backhand so short that your opponent had little choice but to follow it into the net only to be passed with ease.

5) Cute girlfriends beat coaches hands down. Though they may prove to be more expensive in the long run. She was admirably calm throughout the match. Only one moment looking completely stressed out and seemed happy to kiss the winner (see picture above). Not so sure how she would have reacted if he'd have lost after having match point on two separate occasions.

 

-- Edited by kundalini at 03:40, 2006-02-20

I came back from work, avoiding all potential ways to find out the result (which isnt difficult in taiwan) and came straight to this site so i could find out step-by-step what happened after i left in set 3. it was like it was happening then.
thanks for the great commentaries, maybe i will go and read all the inferior write-ups now that i got the important stuff from the horses mouth.

Murray; well ****ing done the man.

Allow me to boast of my accurate (ish) prediction;

stagger wrote:

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Murray in 3. loses the first 2-6..takes the next 6-1 and wins the tiebreak 3rd 7-6. murray kisses his new girlfriend who is the daughter of hanchukova's coach, and grabs the mike from the awards guy.

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