Andy Murray - Still Room for Improvement at Grand Slam Level

 Andy Murray lost the final of the 2013 Australian Open in 4 sets to Novak Djokovic

 

Murray started strongly taking the first set on a tiebreak and had three breakpoints at the start of the 2nd set but was unable to convert them.  After that, Djokovic started to find his rhythm on his groundstrokes and serves and took the 2nd set to a tiebreak, which he won to square the match.

 

I got the distinct feeling that it was going to be difficult for Murray to regain the momentum, taking into consideration he played Roger Federer in a tough 4 hour battle two nights before.  That turned out to be the case as Murray was broken at 4-3 in the 3rd set, leaving Djokovic to serve it out. The 4th set proved to be a procession for Djokovic, breaking Murray twice who by now was spent physically and emotionally, Djokovic taking it 6-2 to win his 4th Australian Open and 3rd in a row. 

The interesting thing was that the pundits were prepared to say that Murray is still a league behind Djokovic at Grand Slam level.  That is an interesting statement, considering Murray beat Djokovic in 5 sets in the US Open just a few months ago.  On that occasion, the pressure was on Murray to deliver but now the pressure was on Djokovic, and he came through after a nervous beginning.

In Murray’s previous match, the statistics looked good. Murray hit 62 winners and served 25 aces (check), in fact Murray hit almost 20 more winners than Federer which is unusual, and out aced Federer by 20.  However, winning a major tournament involves repeating that kind of performance back to back from the quarterfinal onwards, Murray came up short when it came to imposing his game For instance, in the final, Murray came to net only 15 times in 4 sets, whereas Djokovic came to net 41 times.  Clearly Djokovic was prepared to take more chances in coming forward to force the action.

As far as where Murray goes from here, he can be satisfied in having played another good tournament where he was only stopped by the number 1 player in the world.  There is no need to panic or fret, or feel he is not going to get where he wants to go as a tennis player and multiple grand slam winner.  However, for Murray to achieve these goals, this match showed that there are still some things that need to be improved technically and tactically before he can achieve the dream of being a multiple major winner.

For Murray to realise his potential even further, he has to play consistently aggressive all year round and not just at certain times or certain matches in tournaments.  That is a habit to play consistently aggressive and something Ivan Lendl can work on with Murray as part of the next stage of his development.

Murray still has to be bolder in his shot selection and be prepared to go near the lines more often in the very big matches.  During the Australian final, Murray played many rallies which were long, but appeared to have no real strategy; he was either waiting for a mistake or trying to engineer an opening which never materialised, in many instances losing the point and heightening his frustration. 

I notice that Murray has yet to recognise consistently that when he hits a big shot into the corners and his opponent is on the defensive, he doesn’t follow in to net, which lets his opponent back in the rally, that happened on many occasions on Sunday.  This is one strategy / tactic Murray must work on to improve, his volleys are very good and he needs to utilise them more.  Murray should also consider the hit and charge tactic on the 2nd serve from time to time to keep his opponent guessing especially on key points.  This is a tactic Federer has successfully employed against Murray in major tournaments; it shortens big points and saves energy.

There is no reason for Murray to get disheartened by his latest slam loss.  He has come a very long way in a short space of time and is rightly considered one of the best players in the world.  However, if Murray wants to become the very best and win Wimbledon, he still has to improve the finer points of aggressive tennis and play over 90% of his points with much more purpose than he displayed in the Australian Open final. 

Murray is a learner so it will be interesting to see if he keeps improving to become a multi slam champion and world number 1 in 2013.