Greg serving:

15-0,

30-0, Andy scrabbles to a drop shot but umpire calls 'not up' and the point goes to Greg.

40-0, passing shot goes wide, Andy bounces racket in disgust at himself,

40-15, df.

game. great little rally with Andy at the service line,  trying to get around Greg at the net but eventually he tries to hard and goes pretty wide!.

4-3 AM with a break.

Andy serving:

I've just noticed the rest of the scottish team are sitting courtside, ready to receive teh cup maybe.

15-0, Greg goes out.

30-0, Greg nets.

40-0, Greg tries a behind the back shot but goes long.

40-15, Andy does a between the legs shot, then races for the drop shot, egged on by Greg but hits it out.

Greg's given up and is just having a laugh I think.

game. Yep, he just threw his racket at the ball on a lovely drop shot from Andy, didn't get it by the way!

5-3.

imoen wrote:

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ultimateshedman wrote:

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Apart from that sloppy game early in the 1st set when he gave the break straight back to Greg it sounds as though it's been pretty high quality stuff from Andy.

It has indeed. He's not one to take an exhibition match lightly!

 

Is he getting more first serves in then usual Bethan ?

Not really, I'd guess it's around 50%

I'm surprised that Greg isn't chip-charging apart from on a few occasions given that the court's so fast, would you say that's because of the quality of Andy's serving Bethan or maybe Greg is wary of the legendary Murray passing shots.

The latter I think.

It sounds as though the difference between them is that Andy's so much more consistent from the baseline and has more ways to hurt Greg off his groundstrokes.

You've got it about right there.

Greg making too many errors at the moment. Is he serve-volleying ?

yes too many errors, but most forced. Not really serve-volleying much, less thatn 50% I think.

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Andy serving:

0-15,

0-30,

0-40, df.

15-40, winner from ANdy.

30-40, greg  nets.

deuce. stunning running fh down the line from our favourite player.

ad Greg, Andy nets.

deuce, netted return.

ad AM, ace

game, netted return off body serve.

2-2.

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I think that Greg has made a big mistake in not serve-volleying and chip-charging Andy more, especially on such a fast court. OK, Andy will pass him a good few times but Greg's no way going to win the match playing predominantly from the baseline, Andy's just far too consistent and heavy-hitting, he works the rallies a lot better and can really tee off on either side. Greg's always going to be eventually outhit playing that way.

Greg's only chance would have been to attack the net as much as possible using his deep slice to keep the approaches low and rush Andy. With the ball skidding through off the surface, it's difficult for Andy to keep making the passes. Henman tried and failed to beat Andy from the baseline 3 times. The only time he had any success was in the latter stages of his match in Basel 2005 when he was attacking the net all the time and in Bangkok this year when he really pressurized the Murray serve with chip-charges and smashing forehands and coming in behind them.

LOL at Andy orchestrating the crowd on match point, then puttting his serve into the net!

There you are Imoen, before 10pm as requested

ultimateshedman wrote:

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I think that Greg has made a big mistake in not serve-volleying and chip-charging Andy more, especially on such a fast court. OK, Andy will pass him a good few times but Greg's no way going to win the match playing predominantly from the baseline, Andy's just far too consistent and heavy-hitting, he works the rallies a lot better and can really tee off on either side. Greg's always going to be eventually outhit playing that way.

Greg's only chance would have been to attack the net as much as possible using his deep slice to keep the approaches low and rush Andy. With the ball skidding through off the surface, it's difficult for Andy to keep making the passes. Henman tried and failed to beat Andy from the baseline 3 times. The only time he had any success was in the latter stages of his match in Basel 2005 when he was attacking the net all the time and in Bangkok this year when he really pressurized the Murray serve with chip-charges and smashing forehands and coming in behind them.

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Greg did attack the net during the points, just didn't serve volley. But Andy was getting it back more often than not. He was really on form this evening.