QF:  (3) Andy Murray WR 4 defeated Dominic Thiem (AUT) WR 52 by 3-6 6-4 6-1

*****

SF:  (3) Andy Murray WR 4 vs (8) Tomas Berdych (CZE) WR 9 or Juan Mónaco (ARG) WR 46

I'm looking forward to it, tennis needs the odd game that induces out bursts of potty mouth. One of the things I enjoy about watching Andy is you never get the feeling he is turning up for the cash, he wears his passion for the game and winning for all to see.

Turned it round beautifully; the mark of a champion as Thiem looked to be on his game this week. He's an upstart and needs to be kept in his box.

Nice interview with Andy:

www.rollingstone.com/culture/features/andy-murray-tennis-great-scot-on-winning-500-and-planning-the-perfect-wedding-20150402

Nice article.

For anyone that missed goldfish posting the referred to twitter exchange with an err 'fan' in the 'Andy's tactics against the big boys' thread, I copy it again here :

HH: hope youre watching the big boys play, some lessons to learn with holding serve #40love #1minuteholds #alloverthenet #focused
Andy: hey bud u OK?
Andy: let's chat... You have some pretty strong opinions so let me try answer a few of your questions/complaints etc
HH: sounds good. But I don't want the headache of your most loyal giving me abuse. So I may have to just decline
HH: And I'm sure you'll know, having had experience first hand, strong opinions aren't necessarily bad/invalid...no?
Andy: there is nothing wrong with strong opinions at all... But it's strange to have such strong opinions without knowing little
Andy: about the subject you are discussing
HH: True - as a spectator I'll watch the top 2 and think 'damn why doesn't Andy do that?'. But I have 0 slams so what would I know?
Andy: it's nothing to do with that... You have a problem with amelie and blame alot on her but you have no idea about the work we do
Andy: you say she says "yes" to everything also but you haven't been involved in any conversation with me and team
HH: All I see is Lendl had his way and it met outcomes. That's just the benchmark I am comparing it to
Andy: what was lendls way?
HH: from what I judged in what you said about him in interviews it was his way or nothing. Did I misunderstand?
HH: www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/tennis/andymurray/11442632/Andy-Murray-insists-Amelie-Mauresmo-does-not-talk-over-me.-She-listens-to-everything-I-say.html
HH: look Andy, I have strong opinions and apologise. This convo will get unnecessary heat at me so I will step away and deactivate
Andy: with certain things yes that would be the case..but Ivan always said you have to be the one making the decision
Andy: in tennis the responsibility of the performance lies with the athlete as coach can't help when you are out there playing
HH: I have 0 slams and 0 inside knowledge. Everything I say is a judgment from watching you for the last 6 yrs, interviews +results
Andy: yea but you say watch roger and Novak serve for example...I watch those guys all the time by the way... But what do you mean?
Andy: in my match against Novak I served badly..the worst of the tournament in terms of percentages by far...but the rest of
Andy: the event was much better than the last month
HH: Novak has pretty decent serve but last few months he's just taken it up a level - the technicalities how he has I don't know..
Andy: yesterday he served double fault on break point second set, then 3 in the tie break and then another one to get broken in 3rd
Andy: Novak is serving very well just now and he is extremely confident... That's what winning does to your whole game
HH: totally agree. Watched every match. But would Lendl take that loss and make you hit the practice courts hitting 500 serves?
HH: ...is it finding the perfect rhythm? Tweaking the ball toss? Believing in yourself that you can go for more on your 2nd?
Andy: it's a combination of a of those things.. And the only way it can get better is by practicing it... Which I do for hours
Andy: every week, and I'm sure the guys ahead of me do the same
Andy: I did tweak my ball toss significantly in the off season and if you watch videos it's very clear in Australia
Andy: no not really, I would sometimes go to practice immediately after matches if there was something I wasn't happy
Andy: but I also did that 2 times last week after matches.. Just because you don't see it doesn't mean I'm not doing it
Andy: at Australian open I was playing my best tennis in a long time... And the last 30 minutes of the tournament were ugly for me
HH: So you have the belief, you put the hours, technique is solid. Where do you think you need to step it up?
Andy: I need to consistently find how to play at that level and getting a coach to help me through the whole year will be big plus
Andy: in all of February I had no coach around me to work on things I feel my game regressed slightly in that month
HH: so is it a focus issue? Saw ur Rotterdam notes - be good to urself.This is hard to practice so maybe it case of getting wins in
Andy: being good to myself was there because on the court I'm not good to myself..too hard on myself, something in trying to improvr
HH: My view - when you have a solid goal, you're focused and pumped. First slam,wimbledon, Olympics...find your next feasible goal.
Andy: my goal is try and win grand slams, that's what motivates me..and I agree being pumped up makes me play better
Andy: I also had a goal of winning in Australia... But things don't always work out how you want
HH: I remember 2010/11 AO loses you struggled up till Summer. This year you picked yourself up straight away with Davis Cup...nice
HH: ..obviously it was unfortunate to see u lose early in Rotterdam/Dubai but like you said - you didn't have someone with you.fair
HH: Winning slams is a great goal, I want to have a red Ferrari - that's mine. But break your goal down, what's steps do u need
HH: ..mini steps do you need to take to get there? Break it down. E.G you want to win FO
Andy: not having a coach around for 5 weeks makes it hard to work on things for me... Not everyone is the same though
HH: So maybe aim for a title in Munich, good wins in 1000s, defend SF RG 2014 points. Aim to get confid in serve back before grass
HH: But who am I to talk? I have 0 slams. Maybe I just repeated everything Amelie is working on with you..but that's my view.
Andy: I am number 2 in the race right now and just had my best run at Indian wells since 2009...its not all bad news
Andy: I agree that setting shorter term goals is good and a problem I have had in past was focusing solely on slams
HH: totally agree.

Great read that, thanks for mentioning it in here - I probably wouldn't have seen it otherwise. I think it shows that Andy is very self-aware, and knows the areas in his game that are being criticised.

The second set ditto. An entertaining match I thought, Andy played well nearly all the time, Berdy played well some of the time, what more can we ask?