Yesterday, Andy Murray picked up his first Masters 1000 title of the year and 7th of his career, leading Novak Djokovic 6-4 *3-0 when the world number one was force to retire.
It was a tough situation all-round. It has to be tough for Andy to win such a big title like that. But he’ll take it. Will the level he showed this week be enough to capture his first slam at the US Open? Not even close. He was far too passive for most of this week and the level of play wasn’t particularly great in any of them. But at the same time, a title is a title and a Masters 1000 is a Masters 1000.
He’ll go to the US Open full of confidence, and judging by the Cowan and co’s excited muttering at the prospect of the Big 3 all being either injured or in poor form at the US Open, with all the British pundits once again expecting him to win his first slam there. Expect an article from Simon Reed claiming that Murray is the favourite to win the US Open in 3, 2, 1…
Of course, it’s also tough for Novak. We all remember the days when he was called ‘Fakervic’ and every top ten player and their dog all systematically criticized him for his various ailments. Nowadays, his peers’ views don’t appear bother him as much as they clearly did back then. And even so, when it got to the point where he was rolling first serves in at 88mph and couldn’t hit forehands without pulling up and wincing in pain, retiring was the only and logical option so close to the US Open. It took him a long time to make that decision, and he was probably more reluctant to quit because of all of the scar tissue from back in the day. However, apparently not everyone was convinced;
My only reaction to that is oh. As in ‘OH, is that Jamie Murray or Janko Tipsarevic?’ It’s one thing to be happy for your brother/friend or whatever. But it’s another thing altogether to start acting like some groupie living your life vicariously through that person and going as far as to start gloating on twitter about it. Grow up, son. It ain’t cool.
But anyway, let’s talk about the ATP in general. Really, this has to be one of the most uninteresting periods on the ATP for a long time. The start of the year was exciting; as the Djokovic run gathered steam, we all watched with baited breath to see who would be the player to end it. In retrospect, it just had to be Roger Federer, and the manner in which he euthanized the streak was stunning. Absolutely stunning.
But since then? Well, all there has been to watch is Rafa’s game and confidence falling apart while Roger has appeared completely disinterested for the most part - the sparkle in every part of his game other than his serve nowhere to be seen. And this all really shows that, contrary to popular belief, there is zero depth in the ATP right now. Every single top 4 player has been playing poorly during this US Open series, and yet no player has been even remotely close to taking advantage. We all thought that Fish’s time had come this week in Cincinnati, but after easing past Nadal, he then put on a complete shocker against Murray and threw away probably the biggest opportunity in his career thus far to pick up a Masters 1000.
So on we go. Who knows what will happen in a week from now when the final slam of the year finally kicks off? It could be a completely boring trainwreck of a tournament continuing on from the trend set by the last handful of weeks, or else something special and unexpected could happen. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see…
Ryan Harrison has recently been getting some well-deserved criticism for his on-court temper tantrums, and from the sounds of it, he ain’t happy. After more questions on the subject, he attempted to defend himself by bringing up the Serena Williams incident from 2009, stating that he would “never put myself in a Serena situation”. But not content with that, he followed it up the next day with this gem;
“To be honest with you, Federer, personally if he had a little more fire, it would help him get back to the top.”
I actually genuinely like this guy and his game, and my problem with the quotes isn’t that he he’s criticizing Federer and Serena or whatever, but rather that he is implying that his attitude is actually better than the two legends. That outburst will always be the nadir of Serena’s career on-court, but that was one isolated incident after an abnormal amount of injustices that were always dealt with in good grace.
But Harrison? Well, I’m no expert but I’d say that throwing your toys out of the pram multiple times in every match, regardless of whether the match is serious or just a ‘hit ‘n’ giggle’, is probably worse:
And as for the second quote, he’s pretty much suggesting that if Federer has *his* “fire”, Federer would get back to the top. That deserves no comment…
French Eurosport are now reporting that Hingis and Federer(‘s entourage?) are to sit down next week and seriously discuss the possibility of playing in the Olympics.
Swiss Tennis president Reneacute has confirmed to Sports show Friday that a potential Federer-Hingis partnership is being considered seriously and a meeting between the two players will be held next week to discuss the matter
I still won’t believe it until it actually happens, simply because, thanks to the whole “doping” ban, there are still so many obligations that Chucky would need to fulfil before stepping back onto the professional circuit in any way, shape or form. Also, if she was to come back for the Olympics mixed doubles, she would have to first qualify for either singles or women’s doubles, bringing up the possibility of a full-fledged comeback.
But they have to get going - we’re almost a year away now and it would be quite embarrassing if she announced her intention to return yet didn’t give herself enough time to actually fulfil all the requirements in order to make herself eligible for the London games.
