AnOctorokForDinner
Talk Tennis Guru
Hence if 2011 was part of Murray's prime, so was the former 52-week period, so he practically entered his prime right away following his first chelem QF at 2008 Wimbledon. It's either both or neither.
2008 Cincy - 2009 Canada Mury results:
Cincy W beating Djo
Olympix 1R loss to Lu in straights (sleep disturbed by noise)
USO F beating Nad, lost to Fred badly
Madrid Indoor W beating Fred and peak Simon
Peter 250 W
Paris QF lost to def champ Bandy
YEC SF, beat Fred lost to Denko sadly
2009
Doha 250 W beating Fred, Dickrod
AO 4R lost in 5 to Beastdasco (5 sets in SF with peakdal)
Rotterdam 500 W bagelling Nad in final
IW F, beat Fred lost to Nad badly
Miami W beating Delpo and Djo
MC SF lost to Nad
Rome 2R lost to Monaco
Madrid QF lost to Delpo
RG QF lost to peaking Gonzo (5 sets in SF with Söderking)
Queen's W
WB SF lost in tiebreak-tight 4 to renovated Grassdick (5 deep sets in F with Fedr)
Canada W beat Denko, Tsonga, Delpo
Résumé:
Young Godray defended four masters titles at that point - he went on to lose Cincy SF to Fedr and never held four masters titles at the same time again. His other masters results included: 1 F (peakdal), 1 SF (claydal), 2 QF (indoorbandian and claypotro), a single early loss - not bad at all.
Mury's slem results might seem a bit underwhelming on first glance, with only one final, but three of them occurred in 2009, a wonderfully deep and competitive high-level year despite what some ******* may spout. Andrew fell in competitive and exciting matches to zoning Verdasco and Roddick, who ended up giving Nadal and Federer all they could handle. The Gonzo loss wasn't great, but the 2011 road to SF wasn't convincing either, more on that later.
YEC SF - disappointing loss to Denko after spending too much effort kicking Fedr out, but at least he made it out of RR.
Lesser tournaments: 4 titles, 2 of them beating Fedal. In fact, Murray dropped just one set to non-Fedal players across all four wins. Pretty great.
Now onto Murray's 2011 season:
AO F - lost to Djokovic badly
Rotterdam - lost first match in straights
IW - lost first match in straights
Miami - lost first match in straights
MC SF - lost to Nadal
Madrid 3R - lost to Bellucci badly
Rome SF - lost to Djo in deciding TB
RG SF - lost to Nad in straights (but barely beat Troicki in 4R, who was the only seed Mury faced till SF)
Queen's W beating Roddick and Tsonga
WB SF - lost to Nadal in pretty easy 4
Canada - lost first match in straights
Cincy W beating Fish and Retiredvic
USO SF - lost to Nadal in easy 4
Bangkok 250 W
Tokyo 500 W bagelling Nadal in final
Shanghai W beating Ferrer
Paris QF - lost to Berdych
YEC RR/ret - lost his first match to Ferrer then withdrew citing back.
Résumé:
Mighty Primeray got 2 masters titles beating Fish and Ferrer (and scary shoulderovic who retired down a set and a break), 2 clay SF losses to Nadal and Peakovic (respect for nearly stopping Peakovic's streak), a close QF loss to Berdych and four straight-set losses in early rounds.
Made the semis of all four slams - solid consistency - but outside of AO, beat zero top tenners en route and lost quite tamely to Djokodal in all slams. The RG loss to Nadal was actually the best considering it's Claydal, straight break sets but lots of BPs for Nadal to defend. Gave Murray the confidence to take the first set at Wimbledon but early in the second he missed a standard volley that would've given him double BP and was quickly bunnified back. As it turns out, Mandy didn't beat anyone nearly as good as 2009 AO Beastdasco or 2009 WB Fightdick, and when he met the Djokodal who were even better than that, promptly collapsed.
Didn't win a single set at the YEC as back acted up, sad times.
Got 3 lesser titles beating Roddick, Tsonga and Nadal, quite good but not as good as 2009.
Comparison:
Youngray's first 52-week stint as a top player beats his 2011 season handily in the YEC, Masters and sub-Masters categories, and while his young slam results are technically lesser, that is reasonably ascribed to facing lesser but zoning players in Verdasco and Roddick, who were able to edge him in tight matches, whereas 2011ray didn't face anyone that great until Djokodal then got plonked by them, which doesn't suggest he'd necessarily beat someone of an intermediate caliber between mug and ATG. 2011ray did better on clay it must be said (better RG by one round and masters by one round + the mighty match with Peakovic), but similar on grass (same results exactly, small sample size doesn't allow for a clear answer but match facts don't suggest 2011 Grassray was measurably superior to 2009 Grassray), and clearly worse on hard, even with the 4R<SF slam differential 4 masters + final >> 2 masters + QF and 3-0 YEC SF >> 0-1 YEC RR/ret.
2008 Cincy - 2009 Canada Mury results:
Cincy W beating Djo
Olympix 1R loss to Lu in straights (sleep disturbed by noise)
USO F beating Nad, lost to Fred badly
Madrid Indoor W beating Fred and peak Simon
Peter 250 W
Paris QF lost to def champ Bandy
YEC SF, beat Fred lost to Denko sadly
2009
Doha 250 W beating Fred, Dickrod
AO 4R lost in 5 to Beastdasco (5 sets in SF with peakdal)
Rotterdam 500 W bagelling Nad in final
IW F, beat Fred lost to Nad badly
Miami W beating Delpo and Djo
MC SF lost to Nad
Rome 2R lost to Monaco
Madrid QF lost to Delpo
RG QF lost to peaking Gonzo (5 sets in SF with Söderking)
Queen's W
WB SF lost in tiebreak-tight 4 to renovated Grassdick (5 deep sets in F with Fedr)
Canada W beat Denko, Tsonga, Delpo
Résumé:
Young Godray defended four masters titles at that point - he went on to lose Cincy SF to Fedr and never held four masters titles at the same time again. His other masters results included: 1 F (peakdal), 1 SF (claydal), 2 QF (indoorbandian and claypotro), a single early loss - not bad at all.
Mury's slem results might seem a bit underwhelming on first glance, with only one final, but three of them occurred in 2009, a wonderfully deep and competitive high-level year despite what some ******* may spout. Andrew fell in competitive and exciting matches to zoning Verdasco and Roddick, who ended up giving Nadal and Federer all they could handle. The Gonzo loss wasn't great, but the 2011 road to SF wasn't convincing either, more on that later.
YEC SF - disappointing loss to Denko after spending too much effort kicking Fedr out, but at least he made it out of RR.
Lesser tournaments: 4 titles, 2 of them beating Fedal. In fact, Murray dropped just one set to non-Fedal players across all four wins. Pretty great.
Now onto Murray's 2011 season:
AO F - lost to Djokovic badly
Rotterdam - lost first match in straights
IW - lost first match in straights
Miami - lost first match in straights
MC SF - lost to Nadal
Madrid 3R - lost to Bellucci badly
Rome SF - lost to Djo in deciding TB
RG SF - lost to Nad in straights (but barely beat Troicki in 4R, who was the only seed Mury faced till SF)
Queen's W beating Roddick and Tsonga
WB SF - lost to Nadal in pretty easy 4
Canada - lost first match in straights
Cincy W beating Fish and Retiredvic
USO SF - lost to Nadal in easy 4
Bangkok 250 W
Tokyo 500 W bagelling Nadal in final
Shanghai W beating Ferrer
Paris QF - lost to Berdych
YEC RR/ret - lost his first match to Ferrer then withdrew citing back.
Résumé:
Mighty Primeray got 2 masters titles beating Fish and Ferrer (and scary shoulderovic who retired down a set and a break), 2 clay SF losses to Nadal and Peakovic (respect for nearly stopping Peakovic's streak), a close QF loss to Berdych and four straight-set losses in early rounds.
Made the semis of all four slams - solid consistency - but outside of AO, beat zero top tenners en route and lost quite tamely to Djokodal in all slams. The RG loss to Nadal was actually the best considering it's Claydal, straight break sets but lots of BPs for Nadal to defend. Gave Murray the confidence to take the first set at Wimbledon but early in the second he missed a standard volley that would've given him double BP and was quickly bunnified back. As it turns out, Mandy didn't beat anyone nearly as good as 2009 AO Beastdasco or 2009 WB Fightdick, and when he met the Djokodal who were even better than that, promptly collapsed.
Didn't win a single set at the YEC as back acted up, sad times.
Got 3 lesser titles beating Roddick, Tsonga and Nadal, quite good but not as good as 2009.
Comparison:
Youngray's first 52-week stint as a top player beats his 2011 season handily in the YEC, Masters and sub-Masters categories, and while his young slam results are technically lesser, that is reasonably ascribed to facing lesser but zoning players in Verdasco and Roddick, who were able to edge him in tight matches, whereas 2011ray didn't face anyone that great until Djokodal then got plonked by them, which doesn't suggest he'd necessarily beat someone of an intermediate caliber between mug and ATG. 2011ray did better on clay it must be said (better RG by one round and masters by one round + the mighty match with Peakovic), but similar on grass (same results exactly, small sample size doesn't allow for a clear answer but match facts don't suggest 2011 Grassray was measurably superior to 2009 Grassray), and clearly worse on hard, even with the 4R<SF slam differential 4 masters + final >> 2 masters + QF and 3-0 YEC SF >> 0-1 YEC RR/ret.