Murray v Davydenko

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

RE: Murray v Davydenko

indiana · Tennis legend

kundalini wrote:

As for Andy's serve, you have to wonder about the decision to cut down the pace in the hope of getting a higher percentage of first serves in play. The current version barely looks top 100 standard, with almost no penetration; the huge aces down the middle and the slightly rarer big serves out wide, have largely vanished. The majority of successful first serves come at a hardly frightening 110-115 aimed vaguely in the direction of his opponent's body but get returned with little difficulty. Last year's hints of promising weapon have turned into a serious liability that top players can break several times each set. Not surprisingly Davydenko returned comfortably throughout. Somewhere in this match was a message to Andy: good players don't hand you the victory that often. You need to make things happen rather than hope that your opponent will make the first mistake. -- Edited by kundalini at 01:00, 2006-03-13 -- Edited by kundalini at 01:05, 2006-03-13

Yes, it is disappointing that for the moment, Andy's service has become much less of a weapon and more a liability. While I had heard a lot of good things about Andy before last summer, whatt really surprised me when I first saw him 'live' last year was the power of his service. It looked as if, given he was still developing his body strength plus practice might bring more consistency, it could turn out to be a real weapon.

I am presuming that this current effort to be improve accuracy is going to be allied soon with an attempt to turn up the burner towards last year's levels since it is clear that the current slightly more accuarate version is less of an overall weapon than last year's service and is actually a liability against top players. He needs particularly to have a much more powerful version for grass court time or he will really be jumped upon.

It is also disappointing that he was apparently quite passive in general play against Davydenko. I had my doubts about reports early on in the year that he was trying to play more attackingly, but come San Jose, I could see the benefits and was prepared to accept that his relatively poorer performances in Australia were as a result of adapting to changes in his game. It does look that without being reckless, he needs to seize the moment more against the top players rather than wait for their mistakes.

It has to be said though that Andy remains a huge talent and potentially a really huge prospect for greater things. While greatly appreciating kundalini's match reports, I sometimes find myself thinking here is an 18 year old in his first full year on the ATP tour, are you not being too crtitical. Yet my own comments above, when I read them over, seem critical.

I suppose it is a case that we can see, at his best he can already successfully compete with players at top 10 level, and just so want him to fulfill his true potential. Although, all things being equal the sooner he gets to the top the better, I would ultimately be prepared to accept (*) him plateuing for a year or 2 within the top 50, if other ongoing developments and work on his game were to bring him ultimately to a much highe rlevel. To me, this is undoubtably, at he very least, a top 10 player of the future if he is handled and handles himself correctly.

* I say that soberly now, probably in actual fact I'll come out yelling if he's not making fast progreess. But really it is not where he is in a few months that really matters, it is where he is in a couple of years.

geo1 · Intermediate Club Player

Hey up !!! just watched highlights of Andy V Davydenko on atpmastersseries.com...... and though it obviously only showed highlights, and it's obvious that Andy can and has played better, it looks to me that Andy has the game, and that he just needs to do a little bit more growing up.... just like Andy keeps reiterating, and I think that we could do worse than believe in what Andy does and says.

Cheers

Geo.

Sheddie · administrator

Trust me kundalini, your match reports and analysis are always superb, fantastic to read and they provide a great insight into the match. They're much appreciated and much, much better than any of the stuff we get next day in the newspapers, you'd make a great pundit for the Beeb or Sky !

Drew · Mar 13, 2006

Just downloaded the Davydenko hi-lights.

From the 5 minutes you get it seems that Davydenko constantly had Murray on the move hitting the ball very hard. Andy managed some terrific passing shots. His best play was similar to the ATP 'play of month' v Dent at Queens the drop shot, the lob, the volley winner !!!

Tame shot by Andy on match pt !!!

10/10 effort.....6/10 performance.....could do and will do better !!!

imoen · Admin: Moderator+Tennis Legend

UltimateSlabbaFan wrote:

Trust me kundalini, your match reports and analysis are always superb, fantastic to read and they provide a great insight into the match. They're much appreciated and much, much better than any of the stuff we get next day in the newspapers, you'd make a great pundit for the Beeb or Sky !

That's one of the things I love about this site, everyone knows what they're talking about and so the opinions voiced are pretty much always balanced, and absolutely always heaps better than any of the other reports we get to read! Of course the reports on here change as we are disappointed/excited due to a result, but they are still always good. As a fan I want Andy to be number 1 tomorrow, but realistically I know that won't happen and I know that at the age of 18 he still has ample years to realise his potential in. In my case, it's partly because I've only ever supported Henman as an older player and so am in the mentality of 'he has to win NOW before it's too late', it's hard sometimes (well most times) to remember Andy just isn't in that position.

Keep up the reporting one and all, it's almost like watching Andy myself (can't wait till I get to see him again, the last time was when he played Federer).

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

Madeline wrote:

Kundalini, I have been hunting all over for the thread around the turn of the year, when we were discussing just how fast Andy would climb up the rankings. I remember being "ticked off" a bit by you for being too pessimistic - now we are getting into trouble for making excuses for him! I couldn't find the thread, it is buried too deeply, but I distinctly remember you making a remark like "I thought you were all supposed to be fans of his?" That is the trouble, we are fans, and I for one spend half my time trying to dampen down the hype on other boards from the people who either think he will or think he ought to be beating everybody in sight. I do think we need some patience. We love your reports, however, even if some bits are a bit unpalatable at times! Please keep on with them.

Here's the thread you mentioned:

http://www.activeboard.com/forum.spark?forumID=61841&subForumID=194088&action=viewTopic&commentID=4921063&topicPage=3

Hey, I was surprised that Andy fans thought Tim would outperform him this year, though most of us are/were Tim fans too and were perhaps hoping deep down that the back trouble would vanish and Tim would rediscover the form of 2004 rather than a repeat of the horrors of 2005. Otherwise I'm really struggling with that one.

And I think you are right to dampen the hype, to explain away defeats as being down to youth, to be more patient. That wasn't meant as a criticism just a different way of looking at things. Even I know it is going to take time to get all the pieces of the jigsaw in place.

After Australia and then Zagreb I thought that I had totally misjudged how Andy would perform this year. That the MTF posters who said he'll stay around 50 in the rankings might be right. In San Jose I knew he would lose to Roddick. That he'd be lucky to get a set.

You know what happened next. Now try to watch a match against a top 20 or top 10 player without thinking that Andy can win so long as he gets his act together.

By the way, does anyone still think Tim will finish ahead of Andy this year? And my predictions that Andy's best performances would come on the clay are about to be tested.

(Message to Andy - If you agree to hit your serve a bit harder, I'll agree to write slightly less brutal assessments of your matches. Deal?)

stagger · Club Coach

these are my favourite parts of this board you know, the 'live' matches. they have become a bit of a 'culture'. long live the live threads.

eblunt · Club Coach

Andy tries to keep the hype and expectations down, yet we're just as guilty of ramping them up even on here. He's playing the world number 5, he's 18, ranked 42 yet I still see comments like 'Andy should be 50-50 for this match'. To be , this is a match he has a 20% chance of winning , no more.

It was an amazing fluke he won in San Jose - well ahead of expectations. The fact that he is comfortable beating players outside the top 100 like the greek guy in rd1 is just as significant for me in some ways. He wouldn't have been expecting to even win a set in a game like that a year ago, now it's just routine, and we all take that for granted already. We just have to be patient before he genuinely competes against the top 10 on a consistent basis, till then a few good runs to semis in normal ATP tourneys, maybe 1 Masters quarter final and a GS last 16 is what we should realistically expect for this year.

Ed

Drew · Mar 14, 2006

Ed wrote...........

It was an amazing fluke he won in San Jose - well ahead of expectations

Can we break this statement into two.

It was an amazing fluke he won in San Jose ....i'm at a loss on this part ??????

well ahead of expectations.....agree, no prblems.

Sorry you cant fluke wins against Hewitt and Roddick. Not for me anyhow.

Drew · Mar 14, 2006

Kundaline wrote ..........

(Message to Andy - If you agree to hit your serve a bit harder, I'll agree to write slightly less brutal assessments of your matches. Deal?)

We all agree with you there !!!!!

eblunt · Club Coach

Drew wrote:

Sorry you cant fluke wins against Hewitt and Roddick. Not for me anyhow.

Yes , wrong words from me. Let's say it was very unexpected, and fortunately Andy playing really well coincided with Hewitt and Roddick both off their game. I'd still put Andy at 20-30% chance against either of those two, and I'd put money on him not beating both of them in the same tournament again this year

hi777 · Social player

I saw the highlights a few days back, I think Murray was pretty unlucky here. Davydenko served pretty damn well in the third set and didn't give Murray too many chances. Murray didn't play his best, but he wasn't overly bad either.

It's quite amazing that he managed to take a top 10 player to 3 sets playing sub-par. In a year or so, these sorts of games will be in the bag :)