The fat lady has sung.. an average performance by Andy was never going to do the job here.

Still, a very good run, some good matches under his belt, a career high ranking, and Brad must by now be pretty sure where to apply the smack...

Andy_Murray_Fan wrote:

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dont worry 2 weeks under his new coach and hes been a runner up in one tournament and got to the semis of another. all we scots (me inclueded) expect him to win all of his matches. he still has a huge career in front of him.

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In the end a comfortable win for Richard Gasquet 6-2 7-5 against Andy Murray who never looked likely to make it through to the final. Lacking any sort of spark, Murray disappointed in most areas of his game: few signs of his superb natural ability on return, too many groundstrokes landing short, aggressive forehands tended to miss their target, and as for the serve, all confidence seems to have disappeared.

The efforts of the previous day, and the recurring nightmare of being unable to close out sets and matches on his own serve throughout the week, appeared to have drained Andy of the energy he needed to compete. In comparison Gasquet seemed fresh, serving with pace and precision, constructing the points with intelligence, rarely going for anything too ambitious and enjoying a fair success rate challenging the officials on calls against him.

A double fault from Gasquet brought up the first break point opportunity of the match but an ace down the middle saved it and he went on to hold. Serving at 1-2 Andy had 40-30 but a double fault and a careless forehand wide gifted Gasquet the break. This triggered a spell of almost total dominance for Gasquet as Murray could do little right on court while Richard served beautifully and used tight angled groundstrokes to move Andy around the court before finally finishing the point.

Murray saved two break points then yet more errors presented Richard with the second break. Serving at 5-1 Gasquet lost concentration, his errors allowing Murray to recover a break but the normal pattern returned the next game as it was Andy who couldn't keep the ball in play, Gasquet taking the first set 6-2. 13 unforced errors from Murray in that first set and a handful of woeful groundstrokes landing so short that Richard had no trouble dismissing them for easy winners.

The second set was closer though mainly due to Richard's level dropping somewhat, rather than Andy finding his form. The key game occurred early in the set when Andy had a total of three break point chances but an ace and two drop shots that brought Gasquet to the net only for Andy to fail to find a good enough passing shot, meant that Richard held on. Apart from that there was little pressure on the server until Murray came out to serve at 5-6, dumped a forehand in the net, Gasquet produced a super return that Andy couldn't deal with, Murray's drop shot won him a point but a terrible backhand wide set up match point and Richard took advantage of a short volley from Andy to pass to win the match 6-2 7-5.

Andy would have had to play well to win the match, quite possibly requiring a better level of performance than he had produced all week. But in truth, his display ranged from ordinary to poor. On serve he appeared to lack any confidence at all. Hardly any aggressive first serves found their target while Gasquet, standing deep to receive, had little trouble with the medium paced serves that Andy managed to get in play. In both sets Andy was actually more successful with his second serve than his first, winning 46% on first and 61% on second overall.

On return Murray simply couldn't cope with Gasquet's first serve. The quality of his returning was way below his usual standard with Gasquet winning 82% on first, with aces, unreturned serves, and easy put-aways making up more than half of those points.

It was the rare day when Andy didn't really look like a talented player. Aiming up the line he would miss by yards, volleys sat up for Gasquet to chase down then find a winning pass, passing shots either failed to make it past the net or lacked enough bite to trouble Richard.

In all, disappointing but not surprising. At the highest level, and this week Gasquet looks a top 5 player if not quite at Federer or Nadal's standard, it is difficult to compete when your serve is as weak as Murray's is at the moment; too few cheap points makes holding serve a real struggle, and for once, the Murray return game never turned up. So a super week ends with a reality check: if he is to challenge the best, Andy needs a functioning serve.