Australian Open Final

[Remmie]

What's with all the Jock hating? I love the Scots and Scotland, fantastic place.

[Trumo]

Never going to win a slam. Suppose he's getting one step closer than Henman ever did.

 

Henman never even made a Grand Slam final, even when he was "ruling" Wimbledon. The best he could do was to double-fault his way to a "brave" defeat in a semi-final.

[Mendoza]

Henman never even made a Grand Slam final, even when he was "ruling" Wimbledon. The best he could do was to double-fault his way to a "brave" defeat in a semi-final.

 

He might have made it in 2001 if they had a roof back then. Possibly.

[Trumo]

He might have made it in 2001 if they had a roof back then. Possibly.

 

True. On day 1 of that semi he had the measure of Ivanisevic, but after the rain delay he lost his rhythm and reverted back to normal mode. Had he made the final, I still think Rafter would have won it.

 

A few years later he got to the semis of the French Open and was dominating his opponent Chela early on. Again he retreated and let his doubts about playing on clay get the better of him.

[Mendoza]

Alls well that ends well as Rafter and Ivanisevic played out my favourite Wimbledon final ever. Rafter would have tonked our Tim in straight sets.

[Trumo]

Alls well that ends well as Rafter and Ivanisevic played out my favourite Wimbledon final ever. Rafter would have tonked our Tim in straight sets.

 

Yep. He was a really decent player was Rafter, and a top fella too by all accounts. That 2001 final was epic.

[Mendoza]

I was a big fan of Rafter and Goran, really didnt want either of them to lose that final. Was a brilliant atmosphere as they played it on the Monday and let the fans in. I remember there being a sea of red and white checks. The finale with Goran hardly able to get the ball over the net then finally winning and going up to embrace his dad... well, it was a truly epic sporting moment.

[Faustus]

I'll stick my neck out here and say that he'll never win a Major.

[Thomo123]

Was never going to beat Nole on that sort of form, especially when he is walking around dragging his feet and generally carrying on like a spoilt kid who got subbed in an U14's game.

[sir roger]

Actually, he isn't too good not to win. He's way too passive, he has no real weapons in his game other than his movement and being able to consistently last in long rallies. If he stays at his level, doesn't develop a consistently good serve, doesn't gain hard hitting weapons, doesn't come to the net, I can only see him winning a slam if Fed retires, Nadal is injured and Djokovic implodes somehow. Del Potro will become a better player as well if he comes back to what he was before the injury.

 

Murray is simply a hard court, defensive baseliner and that doesn't win slams.

 

I agree with a lot of your analysis of Murray's failings but feel your last paragraph is a tad harsh as in reality he has only been one excellent performance from winning a major on 3 occasions.

 

I think he needs to address 3 problems to reach the next level, one physical and 2 mental.

 

The physical one is his serving game which disintegrates under pressure.

 

First mental one is that when struggling he stops going for the lines and settles into a groundhog day routine of pushing the ball back at the opponent down the middle of the court bouncing three-quarters the way towards them.

 

The other mental thing is that his demeanour when behind is abysmal and must gee up his opponents considerably. Even if he has to take acting lessons he needs to stop the Rab C Nesbitt routine of belting himself , belting rackets & chunnering to himself.

 

While this sounds massively negative, he is our best male player for 70 odd years & even today he has actually just finshed a slam 3 full places above his seeding.

[G Richards]

Will he win a Slam? It's hard to say. Good player, and even one of the best in the world, but he needs to find another gear as the gap between Murray and the very best has been all too clear in each of his final appearances.

[Master Bates]

It's now 75 years since a British man won one of the four Grand Slam tennis titles. That was Fred Perry at the US Open back in 1936 when most of us were still coming to terms with the Abdication Crisis.

 

Come on Britain, with a bit of effort we can easily make it 100 years without a win.

 

So take heart Murray and think of your glorious predecessors, Mark Cox, Roger Taylor, Buster Mottram, John Lloyd, Jeremy Bates, Miles McClaggan, Tim Henman, Greg Rusedski and Alex Bogdanovich.

 

Let them be a perpetual example to you.