Murray blazing through in Barcelona

Anyone watching Murray vs Giraldo?

Murray 4-1 up in the first set and presumably in cruise control.

... and that's a tasty breadstick for Giraldo.

Murray cruising, Giraldo doesn't have the variety to bother him in the rallies, and his serve is making no inroads. break in the second too...

80% first serve in the second set! Go Lendl I mean Murray!

Come on Andy lets get it over with Lendl looks like he is about to fall asleep :laughing:

The score hasn't changed for ages, what's going on?

OK I guess Murray's push for another break didn't pay off.

Raonic could not impress at all last week in Monte Carlo, but he seems to have raised his level, taking Almagro out in straight sets!

He's the next opponent for Murray.

Raonic's too green, should be fodder for Murray one would think.

Wait, did Giraldo break back?! here we go again...

And Murray breaks again!

Murray destroying Giraldo's second serve there...

If Murray is being broken repeatedly (?) then this could be a case of deja vu x all the time.

he's been broken once Nore, and was more a case of a dip in concentration with a couple of lousy errors (and a DF) thrown in.

Maybe he's getting bored by Giraldo.

It's in these matches where he should be ensuring his serve is up to scratch, i.e. good time to "practice" and improve that weak second serve etc - and staying focussed (thinking about how good his serve needs to be if he wishes to be "regularly" challenging those above him in ranking). If he is broken only once - then that is one too many. Anyway, I am still "hoping" that Murray can take that "next step", but hope is a poor master.

it's always the problem when you feel you can pretty much break an opponent at will, so you're bound to have the odd moment where you lose your focus a bit. Murray has responded well to being broken though, reeling off four games in a row to clinch it 6-1 6-2.

Good performance from Murray.

Score stuck on match point grrr

Cool, GSM, nice and easy!

Giraldo won just 20% of points behind his second serve, awesome returning

20% lol poor old Giraldo.

Yeah, beating up journeymen means a lot.

Sorry, but this sort of match proves nothing. He needs to win a tournament.

But... who said it meant anything? He seems to have hit a bit of form, which is good to see.

Giraldo falls into that category of player who might just win a 250 clay tourney some day in the South American swing with a weak field.

Nonetheless you can only beat whoever is in front of you, so well done Murray on a very convincing performance

I wonder if GB's Nos 2,3 or 4 could beat such a journeyman.

But wait a minute, they would have to have the ability to qualify for the tournament in the first instance

sigh

sportslover - with the possible exception of bogbrush's post, I honestly don't believe any of us were having a go at Andy here. (I can assure you I wasn't)

And even bb was only telling it "as it is", albeit might have come across a bit bluntly.

None of us is in any doubt that Andy is far & away the best of all the GB players. The gap between him and the rest is (sadly !) huge .... an absolute chasm.

I think you're over-reacting a little to what is just realistic comment.

bogbrush wrote:Yeah, beating up journeymen means a lot.

Sorry, but this sort of match proves nothing. He needs to win a tournament.

Come on BB, Giral is the toughest player in the world to beat and Murray is doing it, join the fun, next up my Nation hero waits .

Now you go & prove me wrong ic....

It's already been established that Murray is the second best player to be called Murray of all time on another thread, so where's the beef?

True Andy had an easy match but surely a lot tougher than Rafael Nadal had. Giraldo is ranked 54 in the world against which Andy dropped three games whilst Nadal beat the world no.246 dropping more games in the process.

Bigger challenges lie ahead for Andy on clay this season but at least it is another quarter-final spot on the surface with possibly more to come.

Well, Murray's dropped the first set against Raonic. Anyone watching? Is he being passive / serve gone walkabout / simply outplayed?

Raonic's power is the difference so far...massive serves and FHs. Just served at 238kmh! (149mph)

Reminds me of Sampras sometimes....very aggressive player....this guy has to be top 10 by end of year.

Thanks for the updates lydian. Wow that sounds like a hell of a serve.

Well my other half is Canadian so I guess she'll be pleased.

15-40 down at 3-3...

Murray now 30-40 down

you can try .fromsport. reckoner if you have access to web...

Murray pulls back to adv.

Ahhh man not in straight surely. Sigh, back to the drawing board.

As I was saying on the othe thread I totally back Raonic to win it!

lydian wrote:you can try .fromsport. reckoner if you have access to web...

sadly I am engaged in that dreadful four letter activity: work.

Murray takes game, 4-3...this is hard work for him though.

Yeah I expected Raonic to win too...I like watching Raonic...easy power, maybe the most aggressive top player in the game at the moment, even more than Federer you feel...always thought the future of tennis was a guy like Raonic...big in serve, groundies....but can attack and volley really well too and looks for the first chance to get in.

reckoner wrote:
sadly I am engaged in that dreadful four letter activity: work.

yeah me too....just glancing from time to time...and at crunch points.

4-4...murray twisting and gnarling like he's carrying some sort of injury around the hip area....not sure though.

Murray and Raonic both missing chances.

Murray 15-30 down

15-30 for Raonic. Nice FH by Raonic.

Methinks TB.

Deuce.

BP. Beautiful inside-out FH.