TENNIS in DEPTH.

Tomorrows singles final in Miami has the odds in favour of Murray over Djokovic. A $10 bet will only get you $14 back at the most generous betting shop. Most tennis ‘experts’ are picking Murray, and they list a whole range of reasons for their choice that include the respective past performances of the two players, the weather, their records of endurance, their motivation for additional points, the money, and even the socks and shoes they choose to wear.

I just hope the match lives up to the hype, and that the fans get good value for their money.

I read an interesting article in the British Press that suggested that Andy Murray’s game pattern has become the model for many women on tour. They are not intimating that Murray plays like a big girl, but his style of playing defensive tennis, using low risk shots, metally calculating where to hit the next shot to provide the most difficulty for the opponent to hit a winner instead of hitting a winner, and boring his opponents to death is much like the style incorporated by many players of the fairer sex.

There are many gurus, paricularly the commentators on Sky TV, who go into raptures over his changes of pace, his ability to predict the location of the next shot from his adversary, or his ‘cleverness’ and ‘guile’. I don’t like players who fist-pump their opponents errors whether they caused them or not. And fist-pumping double faults is really a no-no.

There is no denying that Murray is good at his game and that he has perfected a style that might just keep him in the top echelon of the men’s tour. But tennis is not football, and defense is not the answer. A good offensive player will beat Murray, if that player is at the top of his game, unfortunately there is only one such player on the tour. Murray obviously knows this, hence the development of his style of play which is enough to beat 99% of the players. It is the error count which unfortunately determines the eventual winner, not the player who hits the most winners.

For my taste Murray is the epitome of boredom on the tennis court, and I hope that Djokovic can bring his best offensive game and hit twice as many winners as losers, and force Murray to develop a more offensive-minded game in the future.

Bookmark It