Why Andy Murray had a tough time at French Open
Andy Murray was handed a tough opening first round match in the recently started French Open. Murray started his bid into the French Open against Richard Gasquet.
The battle between the British number one and the former top-ten player tested Murray’s progression into the second round of Roland Garros.
During his first round match with Gasquet, Murray got a comeback from 2 sets to love deficit. Murray’s foray in the first round of the French Open lasted more than 4 hours. The British player had a down break during the third set of the match before pushing for a turnover.
Some experts would like to believe that the result of Murray’s first round match was expected. Murray claimed victory in six of his preceding seven matches that progressed to five sets. Gasquet, on the other hand, failed to win eight of his previous nine matches.
Murray was previously known as a teenage sapling whose performance tend to wane during the season. Fast forward to the present, Murray has become the British number one and dependable seasoned professional. This was further emphasized amidst his challenging match against Gasquet but did that match take too much out of Murray, did it push him to the limits, did this match forced Murry to second guess himself.
There were several factors which contributed to Murray’s progressive bid in the French Open. Gasquet has the tendency to tire out his talent’s examinations, which was a way out of Murry but Tomas Berdych is in a much better shape . Furthermore, the French representative played too many clay-court matches in the preceding two weeks. His performance wilted and impeded his foray into the national grand-slam championship. Simultaneously, Murray lived up to his famed defensive type of tennis. The British player banked on his defensive art as a ticket to victory.
Though, British spectators would have preferred an easier match at one point given that Murray exhausted 4 hours and 4 minutes during the first round match. This was eight minutes longer compared to the classic match with Stanislas Wawrinka at the 2009 Wimbledon.
Despite the preference over a shorter match, it’s in fact better for players to get rid of killer matches earlier into the French Open as opposed to playing them later in the championship. This was observed nearly several years ago, when Tim Henman pushed past from two sets claiming victory over France’s Cyril Saulnier during the first round match. People though that that was all there is to it until Henman’s roll proceeded up tot the semi-finals.
It was evident that the British contingent felt relieved after witnessing Murray’s successful bid to victory, 4-6, 6-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-1. The British seed’s ace signaled his win. The French contender was not able to successfully make a return, thus, ending his bid for the title.
The winner became more evident once Gasquet struggled to keep up with Murray’s ball during the fourth and fifth sets. However, despite the British victory during the first round match, experts note that Murray needs to step up his game. To become a contender for the title, he would have to work on nailing first serves better than his first round performance. Murray expressed that Gasquet was a challenging competitor given that he was downing winners everywhere.
After ripping though the next two rounds, Murray was up against No.15 seed Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic in the fourth round.
Berdych, who reached as high as no.9 in the world ranking, was already seen as another threat in Murray’s quest of bringing an elusive majors trophy to Britain.
The match between Berdych and Murray was hard faught but at the end of the day fourth seed Andy Murray, whose stay at the French Open finally ended by Tomas Berdych in the round of 16.
The Czech Vs Uk battle was won by the Czech who handed the British No. 1 a straight sets defeat, knocking Murray out of the tournament 6-4, 7-5, 6-3.
Although Murray served 14 aces, and Berdych 10 – the 15th seed unleashed 37 winners for the match compared to Murray’s 14.
Why Andy Murray had a tough time at French Open would have to go back to the first match, where he almost losted it. Although Murray won the first match but has not looked comfortable since and Berdych put an end. Andy Murray's hope for bringing the French open grand slam to Britian would have to wait for another day.
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