The Golden Age Is Just Gold Plate

With great champions like Federer, Nadal and Djokovic at the top it is understandable that tennis is often described as going through a golden age. This "gold" is just at the surface though. Scratch a little deeper and a far less precious metal can be revealed... This is how last nights performance by the number three seed at the tournament and the number four ranked player in the world is described by Neil Harman of the Times (PPV but as always well worth it)

“Sometimes you see the best of me, sometimes you see the more negative side,” said Andy Murray, fashioning a grin from the fusillade of grimaces that marked his first outing in the 2012 US Open yesterday.

Murray is off and running in the final grand-slam championship of the year, from which many are supposing that he will emerge with the silverware. But sometimes he limped and at one stage, in the third set, he came to a grinding halt in mid-court with what looked like an attack of cramp in his toes.

The first four games were breaks of serve — the Scot’s range-finder was malfunctioning, he fluffed a couple of straightforward volleys and, at one stage, with Bogomolov a sitting duck and with Ivan Lendl urging his man to hit the ball straight at him (Lendl’s party piece), Murray dumped the ball straight into the net. Twice in the opening five games he tossed his racket across the concrete. He was troubled.

Even when he was moving ahead with relative ease in the third set, Murray was shaking his head in the middle of rallies. “I can’t do it, I can’t do it, this is crap,” he said when he was two sets and 3-1 ahead. As per usual, he was making a nonsense of his challenges, as though it did not really matter to him if they were successful or not.

At least Murray is on his way. “I would give myself about six or seven out of ten,” the Scot said.

This performance was far removed from golden. We have been short changed. It also explains why I am not a Murray fan.

so let me get this straight, you're "not a Murray fan" because he doesn't play his best in the first round of a slam but does enough to get through comfortably in straight sets, and is pretty honest in his assessment afterwards. Guess you're not a Federer fan either then...

I assume after Nadal's Wimbledon, er, 'performance', you're no longer a fan of his either

Crikey moses, you're incredibly fickle HE!!

Murray was poor, but still managed to break serve 9 times out of 13, against a player who was one of the more dangerous first round opponents

banbrotam wrote:I assume after Nadal's Wimbledon, er, 'performance', you're no longer a fan of his either

Crikey moses, you're incredibly fickle HE!!

Murray was poor, but still managed to break serve 9 times out of 13, against a player who was one of the more dangerous first round opponents

actually 9 times out of 12, to be pedantic Bogomlov lost his first 4 and last 5 service games, he won the middle 3 (beginning of set 2).

Mad for Chelsea wrote:

banbrotam wrote:I assume after Nadal's Wimbledon, er, 'performance', you're no longer a fan of his either

Crikey moses, you're incredibly fickle HE!!

Murray was poor, but still managed to break serve 9 times out of 13, against a player who was one of the more dangerous first round opponents

actually 9 times out of 12, to be pedantic Bogomlov lost his first 4 and last 5 service games, he won the middle 3 (beginning of set 2).

I did that, so HE wouldn't feel that was a special player as I don't want to break her unshakeable belief that he's rubbish

Were there more breaks than holds in the match overall?

Hawkeye did you go to school with Murray, and get bullied by him?

Henman Bill wrote:Were there more breaks than holds in the match overall?

yup! 25 games, 13 breaks and 12 holds

Henman Bill wrote:Were there more breaks than holds in the match overall?

There certainly was off Andy!!!!! Seriously, no, there was slightly less. Andy gave one of his best 'schizo' performances of all time!!

Mad for Chelsea wrote:

Henman Bill wrote:Were there more breaks than holds in the match overall?

yup! 25 games, 13 breaks and 12 holds

I stand corrected!! I did watch the game, but was stunned with how inept Murray could be one minute and genius like the next. Definetly looks rusty, but it might mean he's got better fitness at the end

If he gets there of course

yeah a bit rusty but he hit some cracking shots. In particular the backhand sliced lob at the start of set 3 (judged to perfection so that it held up just enough in the wind) was a thing of absolute beauty. He'll improve as the rounds go on, and the fact he's coming in for a fair bit of criticism despite only dropping 7 games suggests there's much more to come

Hawkeye article criticising Murray? How interesting.

Zzzzzz...

This "gold" is just at the surface though. Scratch a little deeper and a far less precious metal can be revealed...

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Did you know that Murray gold medals is 400g in weight but only 6g is actual gold? That is "gold plated"! His medal is symbolic of the incoming Murray era LOL

Isn't the metal gold plated silver?