Writing on the BBC website, John McEnroe, three times winner of Wimbledon, thinks Britain’s Andy Murray will have to "dig a bit deeper" if he is to make any real impact in this year’s tournament. McEnroe’s main concern is Murray’s level of fitness, his continuing injury problems, and simple bad luck.
Everyone this side of the Atlantic would like to see Murray do well. However, Murray’s problem is that he is certainly good enough to have raised everyone’s hopes yet remains an outsider when it comes to the big moments. He is a maverick in his own way but remains prone to lapses in concentration and inexplicable wavering on game strategy when in a commanding position. Plus there are the injuries that he seems particularly prone to.
In some way his current situation is similar to that of another Brit, Tim Henman. Way back on 2002 with Henman the prospect of a good run in the Championships, Pete Sampras went out in the second round. The London Evening Standard’s headline that afternoon screamed ‘Sampras out – Henman in with chance’. Now surely that says it all. To win a Grand Slam you need to be able to beat a Sampras, a Roger Federer, a Rafael Nadal at their own game; on the day. And you need to do it at any time, or all the time over the course of two weeks. You cannot simply hope better players will screw up, have a bad match and leave the way clear for you. To lift the trophy on the final Sunday needs belief but also the ability to beat all-comers. And the question is, does Andy Murray have that ability.
I, for one, think he does. (unlike Henman, who I suspect never really had the tennis in him to beat a top player in a Grand Slam final). Yet Murray’s ability is still in the raw. I think his game needs more work, his tournament strategy development and his fitness improving. He does seem a player plagued by injury. That is a concern. At the top end of the game, it is an issue.
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