Andy Murray's 2008 USO Run.

[BGod]

Guy is a few months into 21 and has a run for the ages only losing to the GOAT and 4-time defending champion.

R32-Comes back from 0-2 Melzer including a 3rd set tiebreak.
R16-Destroys 10th seed Wawrinka
QF-Beats Potro in 4 sets including winning back to back tiebreakers
SF-Beats a healthy Nadal coming off winning Canadian Masters and making Semis in Cincinnati in 4 sets.

And yet this run is very much forgotten now. Actually a lot of Murray's early runs are forgotten, like him beating Novak in that year's Cincinnati Masters or the fact he won 6 consecutive Masters Finals including 2 against Roger and 2 against Novak, only 1 going to 3 sets against Potro.

Common!

 

[Mainad]

Guy is a few months into 21 and has a run for the ages only losing to the GOAT and 4-time defending champion.

R32-Comes back from 0-2 Melzer including a 3rd set tiebreak.
R16-Destroys 10th seed Wawrinka
QF-Beats Potro in 4 sets including winning back to back tiebreakers
SF-Beats a healthy Nadal coming off winning Canadian Masters and making Semis in Cincinnati in 4 sets.

And yet this run is very much forgotten now. Actually a lot of Murray's early runs are forgotten, like him beating Novak in that year's Cincinnati Masters or the fact he won 6 consecutive Masters Finals including 2 against Roger and 2 against Novak, only 1 going to 3 sets against Potro.

Common!

Not quite consecutive unfortunately. He lost IW to Rafa. Good post though.

 

[Deleted member 307496]

Guy is a few months into 21 and has a run for the ages only losing to the GOAT and 4-time defending champion.

R32-Comes back from 0-2 Melzer including a 3rd set tiebreak.
R16-Destroys 10th seed Wawrinka
QF-Beats Potro in 4 sets including winning back to back tiebreakers
SF-Beats a healthy Nadal coming off winning Canadian Masters and making Semis in Cincinnati in 4 sets.

And yet this run is very much forgotten now. Actually a lot of Murray's early runs are forgotten, like him beating Novak in that year's Cincinnati Masters or the fact he won 6 consecutive Masters Finals including 2 against Roger and 2 against Novak, only 1 going to 3 sets against Potro.

Common!

It's not forgotten. It was a great run for the time.

 

[Im(moral) Winner]

Baby Murray

 

[Tshooter]

Guy is a few months into 21 and has a run for the ages only losing to the GOAT and 4-time defending champion.

R32-Comes back from 0-2 Melzer including a 3rd set tiebreak.
R16-Destroys 10th seed Wawrinka
QF-Beats Potro in 4 sets including winning back to back tiebreakers
SF-Beats a healthy Nadal coming off winning Canadian Masters and making Semis in Cincinnati in 4 sets.

And yet this run is very much forgotten now. Actually a lot of Murray's early runs are forgotten, like him beating Novak in that year's Cincinnati Masters or the fact he won 6 consecutive Masters Finals including 2 against Roger and 2 against Novak, only 1 going to 3 sets against Potro.

Common!

I was at each of Murray's seven USO matches that year. And his SF match took place over two days (so I should get credit for 8 matches ) and was played in two different stadiums starting in Armstrong and finishing in Ashe .

I like Murray.

 

[NatF]

The match against Nadal is his best USO match IMO. Really high level of tennis.

 

[Tshooter]

The match against Nadal is his best USO match IMO. Really high level of tennis.

It was a great Murray match. And to my knowledge the only time in USO history they have played a men's semi on the number two stadium.

 

[maratha_warrior]

Andy Murray had defeated Fit Rafa Nadal twice in slams and defeated Djoker twice..
Defeated Djoker in Olympics and WTF finals too..
He gets less credit.
Amazing player.

 

[BGod]

I really think early Murray 2007-2010 was stronger mentally than at any other point in his career. His skill came up but he was mentally shot. Yes he came on strong in 2016 but honestly that was more Novak checking out.

 

[Night Slasher]

Murray's tactics was great in that match (though the surface was fairly fast, so he could employ the more offensive strategy with success), going with his forehand when he could and approaching the net frequently enough (never really understood why he switched to less offensive mindset, knowing how good his volleys are). I was impressed with his performance.

Nadal wasn't playing that great to be fair. One just needs to compare his court positioning from 2008 Toronto, when he was having his feet planted firmly on the baseline and dictating the points, and 2008 US Open (behind the baseline with rather defensive mindset) and see how conservative he was in that match. And when Nadal plays "not to lose" tennis (in a big match especially), the reason is either the lack of confidence or tiredness. He was totally exhausted by the time the USO started.

 

[Jackuar]

Murray's sprint out of the gates (ie, his first breakthrough stretch) was extremely good. His game was good enough to rattle the Big 2 consistently, he had a positive h2h vs both of them. But his wrist injury around 2009 pushed him down that top pedestal to the second rung that made him just only part of the Big 4 in an otherwise a bigger share of success he could have potentially had.

 

[Federer and Del Potro]

Fraud misses these days. He had hair

 

[Cam24]

Yep Murray use to have a 6-2 h2h against Federer & pretty tight with Djokovic. Puzzled me as a die-hard Murray fan since before 08 us open how he couldn't cross the finish line in slams when he had all the tools.. 08 us open final his first serve was poor & Fed played like he had nothing to lose, knew he'd win a slam eventually but didn't think it would've taken as long as it did (& had to be more aggressive many a time)

 

[Towser83]

had Nadal gassed in that semi, was remarkable to see him outlast Nadal and just look like he could carry on all day when Nadal was feeling the pace. Very rare that anyone did that to him

 

[Sport]

had Nadal gassed in that semi, was remarkable to see him outlast Nadal and just look like he could carry on all day when Nadal was feeling the pace. Very rare that anyone did that to him

Nadal was already tired before facing Murray.

 

[victorcruz]

Prevented Rafa from winning 4 slams in a row (assuming Rafa still wins AO '09)

 

[Deleted member 763024]

Donno what it says about this generation of ATGs that Murray is supposedly the clown act in this circus.

 

[OldschoolKIaus]

Back in the days when even Murray played aggressive tennis.

 

[MCallanan]

There are many great Murray Grand Slam performances but in my opinion the two that exemplify his peak all around ability and variety are that US Open semifinal against Nadal and the 2016 Roland Garros Semifinal against Wawrinka.

Offensive ball striking from the baseline, serve and volleying and regularly finishing off points at the net against two top tiered opponents who were playing very good tennis.

 

[Towser83]

Nadal was already tired before facing Murray.

Well of course he was, though surprising seeing as he was only 22 back then

 

[mike danny]

Guy is a few months into 21 and has a run for the ages only losing to the GOAT and 4-time defending champion.

R32-Comes back from 0-2 Melzer including a 3rd set tiebreak.
R16-Destroys 10th seed Wawrinka
QF-Beats Potro in 4 sets including winning back to back tiebreakers
SF-Beats a healthy Nadal coming off winning Canadian Masters and making Semis in Cincinnati in 4 sets.

And yet this run is very much forgotten now. Actually a lot of Murray's early runs are forgotten, like him beating Novak in that year's Cincinnati Masters or the fact he won 6 consecutive Masters Finals including 2 against Roger and 2 against Novak, only 1 going to 3 sets against Potro.

Common!

That's what a genuinely good young player does, unlike any of the Next Gen. Young Murray would receive 10 times the amount of hype Zverev is receiving if he were playing in 2018.

 

[Xavier G]

Murray's USO 08 run is not forgotten. That was his first Grand Slam final. Everyone who knows one end of a tennis racket from the other could see the kid had great tennis talent, even in 2005 and 2006.
Murray was even getting the better of Fed in their tour matches until well into '09, so people with sense knew he had the game to win at the highest level.
It just took him a while and a few Slam finals to get a grip on winning Slams.

 

[mike danny]

Murray's tactics was great in that match (though the surface was fairly fast, so he could employ the more offensive strategy with success), going with his forehand when he could and approaching the net frequently enough (never really understood why he switched to less offensive mindset, knowing how good his volleys are). I was impressed with his performance.

Nadal wasn't playing that great to be fair. One just needs to compare his court positioning from 2008 Toronto, when he was having his feet planted firmly on the baseline and dictating the points, and 2008 US Open (behind the baseline with rather defensive mindset) and see how conservative he was in that match. And when Nadal plays "not to lose" tennis (in a big match especially), the reason is either the lack of confidence or tiredness. He was totally exhausted by the time the USO started.

Still, the slow USO surface of the last 2 years robs us of such performances.

 

[mike danny]

Prevented Rafa from winning 4 slams in a row (assuming Rafa still wins AO '09)

Only if you agree that Roger prevented Novak from winning 4 slams in a row in 2011

 

[ghostofMecir]

The match against Nadal is his best USO match IMO. Really high level of tennis.

That CC BH was so unbelievably good that day. His insideout FH was very good, too. He knew he couldn’t roll the ball around and beat Nadal, so he took the initiative. Beautiful play from him that day.