The Murray enigma

Andy Murray is one of the most talented players on the Tour and has been the only real hope of British tennis for quiet some time now. But despite all great expectations, somehow those big results just refuse to come, and slowly, you can begin to sense the frustration of both Murray himself and that of an entire nation behind him.

The Australian Open final and especially the prize ceremony afterwards was an obvious sign for this. But what could be the reasons behind this enigmatic lack of ultimate success on Grand Slam level? Well, I would say there is more than one reason. Firstly, let’s take a look at Andy’s game, which is one of the most difficult playing styles to overcome for any opponent.

At first glance, he doesn’t seem to do too much with the ball – he basically hits everything back into court without any tremendous power and relies on his quickness, consistency and exceptional counterpunching ability.

This is exactly where his strength lies – he can stay with anyone in rallies and usually comes out on top. He also possesses a good first serve and amazing passing shots. However, his game has not evolved a lot over the past few years, it is still a defensive game, which works against most other players, but not against the very best in the world.

Unless he finds some new attacking elements and hit his ground strokes harder, it will not be enough to beat Roger Federer in a Grand Slam final. I also fully agree with Boris Becker that noone in his team has the experience of ever being in a Grand Slam final, and they are not being able to help Andy during his difficult moments on a Grand Slam Center Court. Secondly, all the expectations and the general hype around him in his home country has reached an unhealthy level, and I believe it creates more damage than good.

England is a very proud nation where heroes are easily born, but if they fail to deliver, the public can easily turn against them, creating a huge pressure on the shoulders of anyone. When you are a British sports star, you don’t simply play for yourself, you play for the Queen, the Commonwealth, the Union Jack and all the British fans. The situation is also worsening in the media, especially on sites like the British eurosport.yahoo.com, where the bias towards Murray in all articles and blogs is very apparent.

Independent blog guests have already nick-named the site „Murray-sport”, and sadly, all the biased and over-favouring articles about Murray by Eurosport’s journalists has backfired into a general disapproval of Murray and everything he does. The third reason is Andy Murray himself. One can’t help noticing that he just doesn’t have that loveable personality that would grant him world-wide support. His phlegmatic, sometimes overly confident and negative attitude both on and off court does definitely not help his cause.

A lot of positive energy would be needed – and seemingly it will not come from his present team. To sum it all up, Murray needs to be more aggressive on court with a little more positive attitude, and his quest for Grand Slam glory must be supported in a healthier way by his home nation. Whether it will be enough to solve the enigma and get him where he wants to be, only the future can tell.