Week 17 - ATP 250 - Munich (Clay)

emma · Strong Club Player

RE: Week 17 - ATP 250 - Munich (Clay)

philwrig · Hall of fame

Very impressive, saw most of the 3rd set. Also nice touch hanging his wedding ring round one of his shoe laces.

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

I posted as soon as the match was over, but I must have been too excited to press "submit"! Very close match but Andy won the points that matter.

Jaffa · Challenger level

Superb match that was, Andy is improving rapidly on clay. He must be after that CH spot now...

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

Bob in Spain wrote:
Married last week. ATP title this week. Maybe he should get married more often.

Er, Bob: Andy got married on 11th April, so, what, three weeks ago...? wink

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Stircrazy wrote:
Bob in Spain wrote:
Married last week. ATP title this week. Maybe he should get married more often.
Er, Bob: Andy got married on 11th April, so, what, three weeks ago...?

Details, details smile

Doesn't time fly.

TMH · Futures qualifying

Only caught periods of the second set and the last few games of the third, but the standard was very high. Murray missed an absolute sitter at 6-5*, 30-30 that would have given him match point. Then went an early mini-break down in the tie-break, but responded brilliantly, winning both points on Kohlschreiber's serve to immediately turn it around. In-fact, having lost the mini-break, he went on to win 5 of the next 6 points to seal the title. An outstanding passing shot was surely the turning point.

EddietheEagle · County player

Jaffa wrote:
Superb match that was, Andy is improving rapidly on clay. He must be after that CH spot now...

He played a brilliant match in Rome 2011, taking Djokovic to a third set tie break in the semi-final. I've never seen him play better on clay.

indiana · Tennis legend

A new CH would be particularly pleasant for Andy given his existing one is WR 2.

I think Novak needs to take rather more than Madrid off though for that to have much chance of happening before at least about another year's time.

I can though see him getting back to WR 2 this year, which few could have imagined last year. By definition of his race position of no 2 he's in pole position for that just now.

Oakland2002 · All-time great

Oh I don't know, there is little or no patience for players rehabilitating after major injuries. Back surgery is a big deal for your average Joe let alone an elite athlete having to compete against 3 others who would have dominated most generations in there own right.

To stand a chance in the finals and semis of major competitions against these guys he needs to be at his absolute peak. Realistically there was no way of judging him last year in that context. He needed a training block to which he could commit in order to put the ground work in for the rest of the year. Last year he performed exceptionally well when seen in context of it being a year of
rehabilitation.

Laura's predicament is similar but I think I would rather have my back operated on than my wrist if an elite tennis player which I am not. Again my feelings and not based on deep knowledge of the evidence, although I am pretty sure it's there.

Sorry particularly sensitive as planned to have a week playing tennis and laid up with a sore Achilles after over egging it at the weekend.

indiana · Tennis legend

Oh, I do know. Quite definitely ( rightly or wrongly ) few on this forum at least ( and I suspect more generally ) would have imagined Andy being in the position he is now in.

I know this, because I am aware of various fairly doom laden discussions when as well as certainly being more optmistic than most about how Andy would end last year I tended to be more optimistic for beyond that ( and even I had my concerns re his coaching set-up and possible changes to his playing style ( personally these concerned me more than how he was getting over his back surgery ).

At the end of last year, in the forum rankings prediction contest, I put Andy to finish this year as WR 4. There does look a good chance of him bettering that.

TMH · Futures qualifying

EddietheEagle wrote:
Jaffa wrote:
Superb match that was, Andy is improving rapidly on clay. He must be after that CH spot now...
He played a brilliant match in Rome 2011, taking Djokovic to a third set tie break in the semi-final. I've never seen him play better on clay.

I think he served for the match that day? Wasn't that the year he pushed Rafa close at Monte Carlo too?

There was also that set (was it last year?) where he very nearly bagelled Rafa, only to lose out in two very close sets (after taking the first 6-1).

He shows flashes on clay, but he's quite inconsistent with it.