MURRAY - what a difference a year makes

[batz]

The more perceptive among you may have noticed that Andy Murray is my guy. I've given my reasons previously why I support him so I won't bore anyone by repeating myself, but something just occured to me and I thought I'd make a post about it. If it's a crappy post then please accept my apologies in advance.

12 months ago was my lowest point as a Murray fan. For the first time since he won the USO Juniors, I thought he was sliding backwards. He was 4 months into the season after bagging Gilbert and creating 'Team Murray' and despite winning a couple of early ATP titles, things were not going well. Early exits in IW and Miami (one of them his first defeat on tour where he'd had MP and lost) had the naysayers working overtime. As you can imagine, the British press were giving him absolute pelters.

An improved but still poor clay season followed and things were looking pretty grim.

Then something went 'CLICK'.

Murray says it's the fitness that improved his game. I think it was a bit more than just that. Whatever it was, and even speaking as someone who has never doubted Murray's ability, it is quite a remarkable turnaround given where he was.

One of the great things about tennis is that there's always the next tournament. It's amazing what can happen in a year. Novak, Roger and their fans should keep reminding themselves of this.

[[d]ragon]

I think the two things that Murray really worked on that helped his game were his fitness (as you mentioned) but also his serve. His 2nd serve still needs abit of work but he beefed up his 1st serves. These two things probably gave him a huge boost in confidence which translated into a overall better Murray. After all, if you knew that you wouldn't get too tired during a match and knew you could do damage on your serves, then I think over other aspect of your game would improve just from having that confidence.
I also think he does/did hot yoga. Anyways, I'm also a Murray fan

[clayman2000]

Every top player has a match which propels them to where the want to go
Federers was his dethroning of Sampras, Nadal was his win over Roddick to win the Davis Cup.
Well Murray's was his two sets to love comeback against Gasquet at last years Wimbledon. The Murray in the past would not have the mental strength to comeback. We always new Murray had the capability but from that point he had strength

[Feña14]

Yeah his serve, percentage wise, has improved quite alot.

He's always had a big first serve but he rarely got it in. Now he uses it to get him out of trouble like we saw at the weekend... He hit a second serve ace to win a tight game and then in his next one he hit 3 aces to set up the win.

His second serve still needs work though, as does his general consistency as he often dips in matches. Sort those 2 things out and he can be number 1 in my opinion.

[DunlopDood]

yah it sure does, he's playing great this year. He should make a major breakthrough this year.