Machine like Davydenko advances into final

I suspected Murray would be tired today and he certainly was. He was spotted looking blankly at his team in the third game after a losing a long rally.

In my previous post I wrote :: “The question is, will Murray be tired for his next match tomorrow against Nikolay Davydenko? He certainly can’t play any better than he did today and if Davydenko, who has had a day to prepare, plays as well as he did in his last match I think we could be seeing the Russian advance into the final.”

 His 3 hour marathon match with Federer was energy sapping and it showed today as he could not keep up with the barrage of quality coming from his opponent. Davydenko was simply stunning from the back of the court and Murray had no answers.

The Russian hit with such high intensity and precision and he was clearly prepared to hit forehands and backhands all day until Murray faded. He is comfortable off both wings and his shot technique is impeccable. I became a fan of ‘Davy’ after he won the Miami Masters event dominating Nadal in the final last March. Read the post here.

He isn’t as consistently good as the top four players in the world however when he’s at his best he certainly matches up with them.

He faces Djokovic in the final who has looked shaky this week. Despite the fact he lost to the Serb in the group stage I’m going to predict Davydenko will take the title.

Battling Murray sends Federer home

Andy Murray showed once again why he is the best player in the world at the moment as he fought out a 3 set victory over Roger Federer 4/6 7/6 7/5 in the Shanghai Masters Cup.

This match was fascinating from start to finish with the majority of the crowd in support of Federer. The atmosphere couldn’t have been more different for Murray when compared with the match he played against Gasquet at Wimbledon where everyone was behind him. However he didn’t seem too bothered.

The only incident where the crowd did effect Murray came in the second set where clapping could be heard every time he missed a first serve. This proved crucial as he double faulted on break point after appearing frustrated to allow Federer to break back bringing the score back to 5-4.

This just shows the world wide respect that Federer has earnt over the years during his time at the top of the mens game.

With Federer serving at 4-5 in the third, I witnessed the most spectacular service game I have ever seen. The world number two saved seven match points by playing some breathtaking tennis and then won the game which took over 15 minutes to complete. 

 I even found myself slightly wanting the Swiss master to come back from the dead and win the match after an amazing show of courage and fight to bring the contest to 5-5 despite clearly being extremely tired.

I have to say that Murray at this point with the match duration approaching 3 hours, still looked as fresh as ever and I knew there was only going to be one winner.

The question is, will Murray be tired for his next match tomorrow against Nikolay Davydenko? He certainly can’t play any better than he did today and if Davydenko, who has had a day to prepare, plays as well as he did in his last match I think we could be seeing the Russian advance into the final.

Introducing the ‘David Cup’

A very interesting article appeared on The Tennis Times website recently. It featured Juan Martin Del Potro and David Nalbandian commenting on the venue of the Davis Cup final.

Take a look at the headline and then check out the picture of Juan Monaco which was strangely used to accompany the story!

 Credit for this spot goes to a member of the Talk Tennis forum who goes by the name of ’Love Game’.

The picture has now been removed on the website however the headline typo still remains in all its glory.

Stepanek borrows rackets and… socks!

Radek Stepanek flew into Shanghai from Thailand to replace the injured Andy Roddick only to find that all his equipment was stuck in Chinese customs. Fear not.

Fortunately Novak Djokovic was on hand to lend him some rackets and maybe not so fortunately Andy Murray lent him some socks.

 I’m just trying to imagine the moment when Murray strolled over to Stepanek, mouldy socks in hand and said in his mild Scottish accent: “Alright mate, I’ve heard you need some socks? Here you go, these are pretty good, helped me to get to the US Open final you know.”

 I wonder what could have been going through Stepaneks mind as he contemplated accepting the horrible second hand socks. I reckon he was so scared that Murray would erupt into a trademark incandescent rage that he just took them and walked off quickly to place them in the nearest washing machine. Why didn’t he just buy some from the nearest sports shop?!

This episode has lead me into to asking the following question. If you had to borrow socks from any professional tennis player who would it be?

I would definitely opt for the king of style, Roger Federer. Imagine him strutting over and giving you a pair of glistening white, perfectly preserved Nike socks presented on an marble plaque.

It was not specified what the Czech did for underwear but when considering his trademark match winning celebration is ‘the worm’ some reported that he went commando for the occasion.

Stepanek performing the worm after a victory

Unfortunately Stepanek lost his match to Federer but he did manage to take the first set into a tie break which isn’t bad when your playing with someone else’s rackets!

If you were wondering why Stepanek was selected to be an alternate as opposed to the many players ranked above him, its because they all turned the opportunity down. Poor Show.

Read the ’socks story’ here.