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: 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.
You cheat, Stagger! You have edited your quote!
Mind you, your original post was not far off the mark either
Just heard 5 live news before coming onto this site:
Andy's girlfriend is Kim Sears according to Judy Murray who they interviewed. Kim is the daughter of Nigel Sears - the British coach of Daniela Hantuchova. Kim apparently helps Andy with his laundry which Judy likes. As rumoured, he has had a haircut and his girlfriend cut the hair !
Judy's supporting Jamie this week for the Masters and both are in Sheffield. She didn't get to see the match due to no Sky in hotel. Andy told her all about it afterwards apparently
Just heard 5 live news before coming onto this site: Andy's girlfriend is Kim Sears according to Judy Murray who they interviewed. Kim is the daughter of Nigel Sears - the British coach of Daniela Hantuchova. Kim apparently helps Andy with his laundry which Judy likes. As rumoured, he has had a haircut and his girlfriend cut the hair ! Judy's supporting Jamie this week for the Masters and both are in Sheffield. She didn't get to see the match due to no Sky in hotel. Andy told her all about it afterwards apparently
Heard this too.....recorded it all on my phone ! will do a transripta nd post it later...thought it really amusing that Judy was almost as happy that Kim had cut his hair !!!! LOL
Great win for murray, watched it all on eurosport, he played fantastic and for his girlfriend WOW!! she hot!
Title no2?? If he keeps up his level of play like he had done this week, then he probably be a dark horse for the masters indian wells and miami, plus he may go far.
VSandhi20 wrote: Great win for murray, watched it all on eurosport, he played fantastic and for his girlfriend WOW!! she hot! Title no2?? If he keeps up his level of play like he had done this week, then he probably be a dark horse for the masters indian wells and miami, plus he may go far.
The combination of Andy's girlfriend, the match and the whisky was definately not good for my heart !
Seen Andy says on the ATP site that he spoke to Petch last night and that Mark was a bit worried that he was going to fire him and hire his girlfriend instead.
Dunno whether this has been covered or not (havent ahd time to read the whole thread) but i saw you ask why Petchey wasnt there but i read in the Times when i was coming home an article about him requesting time off (for this week in particular) because the calendar was so full and so he could spend time with his wife/kids. It said that he was still in contact with Murray through phone but like us he was antagonising over live scoreboards! It also highlighted that this makes the achievement even more spectacular - Murray got through the stresses of a tournament without his coach AND won it!
If you had seen Andrew Murray Friday afternoon, you would have noted a despondent British youth. To be sure, a nice ball-striker, but here he was, down a set and a break to unsung Swede Robin Soderling. Murray turned that match around with a brand of grubbing and all-court tennis. It was hardly inspiring, but there he was in the semis.
But it was over the weekend, in front of large crowds, that the 18-year-old Murray showed exceptional prowess, taking out two former world number ones and past SAP Open champions. In the semis, he outmaneuvered Andy Roddick 7-5, 7-5. In the finals, he outmuscled and even outhustled Lleyton Hewitt, 2-6, 6-1, 7-6 (3) to earn his first ATP title.
“It’s the biggest moment of my life in tennis so far,” said Murray. He joins a quartet of other distinguished teenager winners at this event – John McEnroe, Stefan Edberg, Michael Chang and Andre Agassi. Within a year of their wins here, all but Agassi had earned their first Grand Slam singles crown.
While I don’t think that Murray’s going to accomplish that feat, what’s most striking about him are his court management skills. In the spirit of such players Miloslav Mecir, Martina Hingis and Brad Gilbert, he has exceptional anticipation, slithering around the court to get himself into good ballstriking positions. Once set to strike, he has superb variety, mixing up topspin forehands, many a slice backhand and, when appropriate, a powerful two-handed drive. His serve has its ups and downs (Hewitt broke him five times), but on many a tight occasion he can serve with power. He’s quite good at building points: directing serves to corners, using his variety to get opponents off-balance, comfortable with volleys, drop shots and lobs. In short, he creates a lot of mental problems, which as his game grows will also make him a tennis connoisseur’s delight. Says Hewitt, “He hits the ball extremely well, mixes it up quite well. He can dictate when he wants and he’s very good on defense.” Obviously, an early-season title like this will strongly boost his confidence – and put his fellow pros on guard.
Murray the new, and in doubles, John McEnroe the old. His win with Jonas Bjorkman was an elegant showcase of McEnroe’s prowess – his soft hands, keen volleys and most of all, supreme court positioning. Following McEnroe and Bjorkman’s 7-6, 4-6, 10-8 win over ex-Stanford stars Paul Goldstein and Jim Thomas, McEnroe said, “It’s nice for people to see that old Stanford guy still has some game in him.” McEnroe’s victory made him the only male in tennis history to have earned titles in four different decades. It’s also his 78th doubles title. Time will tell if McEnroe will play more doubles events this year. If indeed he returns to active duty, history will show that his return began at the SAP Open.
By the way, if any of you good-looking guys recorded the match onto DVD, maybe you might think of uploading it as a torrent??? I have been here in taiwan longer than the boy has been attracting media coverage of his matches, and I have not once seen him play..... go on, take pity on a tennis-starved expat.
p.s. if you don't know what a torrent is, you may as well ignore this post.
Perhaps the most pleasing aspect of Andy's victory was the mental side of things. His ability to get over his disappointments is extremely impressive for such a young player. After having led by a break twice in the final set and had match points at 5-4 and 6-5 (all credit to Hewitt for the two aces) it would have been easy to have been down and feel that he had blown his chance. Very few players would have played such a good tie break in the circumstances. Secondly his overall demeanor was far better than in the past. I suspect that Andy is always likely to show his annoyance with himelf (and fury at the officials) while on court but at times he has also seemed to show signs of weakness. Against Hewitt (a player who is very good at punishing someone at the first sign of weakness) he did not.
As for the rest of his game, the backhand was stunning, his shot selection and tactics were superb and at times he served very well. If he can add some consistancy to his serve he will have a very formidable game.