ATP Doha semifinal - Murray v Davydenko

RedCabbage · Club Coach

RE: ATP Doha semifinal - Murray v Davydenko

VSandhi20 · Futures qualifying

Great win for murray! Hope he can win the title depending whether he serves well like he did today or if Lujbo falters badly with his service games!

i was watching the match on eurosport, and at the end of the match, murray gave a thumbs up to davydenko was it thanks for giving me the match or i told you so!

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

I am gobsmacked. I hoped for, but didn't expect, a win here.

Now for Ljubicic. . . come on, Andy, you know you can beat him. Another title please!!

Andy_Murray_Fan · Junior player

well done murray great win

mkkreuk · Admin:Moderator + ATP qualifying

im glad soderling didnt win today. I reckon Andy has more chance with Ljubicic.

Thsi win shoudl secure a new hgihes rankin right? 14 or 15?

timmoore46 · Admin:moderator + Club Coach

Truly a time to celebrate!

RobC · All-time great

WR 14

(unles Djoko wins in Adelaide - which he's looking highly likely to )

Happycynic · Pro player

Is there an emoticon for eating your words? In the absence of a pacman, I guess

will have to do. A happycynic tonight. Andy rather keeps me going at the mo, given England are crap at cricket, rugby and football right now, and one doesn't really need to talk about the penury that is being a Leeds United fan.... self inflicted, I know...

Anyway, that is a very strong victory. Davydenko is class, and nice to have USO revenge.

Sheddie · administrator

I know that Davydenko doesn't give much away but it didn't look like he had any kind of injury. He was moving freely around the court, chasing every ball.

He just seemed rattled after losing the first set and Murray just outplayed him in set 2.

Davydenko made too many unforced errors in set 2, forehand in particular let him down. However, much of this was due to Murray. They had so many punishingly long rallies and Murray was getting every shot back, every single time, D would have to hit a special groundstroke to get it past him or come to the net. Many times, D was just unable to come up with that one extra shot or ran out of ideas.

In the rallies, at the beginning Murray was making too many errors but he cut all of these out and his length was superb. Consistently really deep, not giving Dayvdenko anything even with Murray was on the run. D really struggled with Murray upped the pace to his forehand.

Andy really showed today what a brilliant counter-puncher he is, I doubt that Nadal or Federer could have bettered his retrieving and shot-making on the run today. Some of those backhands down the line were simply brilliant, both players trading cross-court then Murray took it deliberately slightly late and hammered it down the line.

Sheddie · administrator

imoen wrote:

Hopefully Andy can hold this time.... and he does. Now break again just to be sure :plesae:

Andy's 1st serve % is 72 compared to 63% from Davy (when was the last time Andy was leading that stat??) I don't know enough to see any change in Andy's serve except that it's going in more often, and the second serve is more accurate and less just put over the net into the middle of the service box. USM (or anyone) would you agree or is there a change I'm missing?

I agree, his serving is a lot, lot better. The extra first serves don't really count for much on hard courts as slow as the ones in Doha, however on faster indoor courts or grass that will really help him a lot.

The Doha courts are sooo slow ! Even a server like Ljubicic is struggling to win many free points on them ! It does really help Andy though, suits his game down to the ground ! The rebound ace courts are similar, if he keeps up this form, Andy will be a real threat in Melbourne

I agree Bethan, the 2nd serve is a lot better. Andy's now placing it really well, there were several times when he kicked it out wide to D's backhand on the ad court and then opened up the court for a backhand down the line, one of Andy's favourite patterns of play

imoen · Admin: Moderator+Tennis Legend

excellent result from Andy, I really didn't expect that but am very glad to have been wrong.

That means Andy has beaten 3/4 of the top 5 players he's met (he's never played Nadal). A pretty good record I think.

steven · Tennis legend

I agree with all that, I was lucky enough to see it and I thought he played brilliantly. The Undertaker will happily bash the ball back all day and wait for his opponent to make errors, so Andy had to take the game to him, and he did. He was making errors early on, but once he cut those out, he looked by far the better player, then in the 2nd set, Kolya was under pressure to try to force things a bit and he made an amazing number of errors under that pressure.

Another one of those performances which makes you think Andy will make the top 10 this year if he remains injury free.

Sheddie · administrator

Happycynic wrote:

Is there an emoticon for eating your words? In the absence of a pacman, I guess will have to do. A happycynic tonight. Andy rather keeps me going at the mo, given England are crap at cricket, rugby and football right now, and one doesn't really need to talk about the penury that is being a Leeds United fan.... self inflicted, I know...

Anyway, that is a very strong victory. Davydenko is class, and nice to have USO revenge.

LOL, maybe someone can find one ?

I didn't think Andy would win this one either having watched Davydenko earlier this week. He's like a brick wall and on these courts I wasn't sure whether Andy had enough in his armoury to break him down as at the US Open. However, from midway from the 1st set Andy just upped his game and winning a single point was just so much hard work for Davydenko and it wore him down in the end.

Did you watch the match happycynic ?

Andy's now beaten several of the top 10. Yet to be conquered are: Nadal, Blake, Robredo, Nalbandian and Ancic.

I bet that Davydenko does come up with some excuse about being under the weather or injured in the press conference

steven · Tennis legend

I agree, his serving is a lot, lot better. The extra first serves don't really count for much on hard courts as slow as the ones in Doha, however on faster indoor courts or grass that will really help him a lot.

The commentator on German Eurosport (who knew far more about Andy than any British commentator would know about, say, Tommy Haas or Niklas Kiefer) mentioned that Andy said after his match yesterday that the last two sets had been his best serving performance for months.

Sheddie · administrator

RobC wrote:

WR 14

(unles Djoko wins in Adelaide - which he's looking highly likely to )

I dunno, he's yet to face an opponent who can really test him. Guccione could cause him some real problems if they meet, has a massive leftie serve (I'm amazed he's not actually top 100 to be honest. Everytime I see him he looks like an Ivo Karlovic but with groundstrokes aswell.) Guccione beat Gasquet today.

Who's Novak got in the semis ?