The French Open title once again eluded Andy Murray, but he has to be feeling relieved about the state of his game heading into more favorable part of the season for him: grass.
After slumping through the first few months of the 2017 campaign, Murray heated up on his least favorite surface with a semifinal run at Roland Garros. The top-ranked Scot beat Juan Martin Del Potro and Kei Nishikori in the process before bowing out in five sets at the hands of eventual runner-up Stan Wawrinka.
Now Murray moves to the green stuff, and nowhere has he been more dominant throughout his career than at the AEGON Championships. Queen’s Club is the site of five of Murray’s 45 titles, making him the all-time leader in that category at this tournament. He is 30-5 lifetime and 10-0 in his last 10 matches (wins in 2015 and 2016).
The No. 1 seed’s draw will not make title No. 6 easy. He could have to get past Sam Querrey and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga simply to reach the semis, where Nick Kyrgios, Marin Cilic, or John Isner may be waiting.
Every one of the top four seeds, in fact, has a tough road. The fourth-seeded Cilic is going up against John Isner right off the bat, the second-seeded Wawrinka is facing Feliciano Lopez in round one, and third-seeded Milos Raonic is in a section of the bracket that also includes former Wimbledon semifinalist Grigor Dimitrov and grass-court wizard Nicolas Mahut.
Quarterfinal predictions: Andy Murray over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Nick Kyrgios over Marin Cilic, Milos Raonic over Grigor Dimitrov, and Feliciano Lopez over Kyle Edmund
Semifinals: Murray over Kyrgios and Raonic over Lopez
Final: Murray over Raonic
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It was all destined ritb. Finally life is fair and hard work and perseverance is rewarded.
Rafa kept working hard and fortunately retooled a bit too his serve his backhand and weight of his shots. Why will the Almighty refuse to award him when he works hard and has desire to win 🙂
Aargh, nice! Well, hopefully I will be rewarded soon with the sight of Rafa biting another Slam trophy! I work hard willing him to win and I do have a desire for him to win! That counts, no?
Sanju, I know this is more a philosophical than a tennis question and we all have different believe systems. While Rafa certainly harvested the fruits of hard work,talent, a great team and good luck, I will never accept the idea that God has anything to do with this. Why should God love Rafa more than Novak and Andy or Wawa – or any other tennis player for that matter? Most of them certainly worked equally hard for it.Who are we to say that they didn’t deserve to win? And what about Rafa’s injury riddled years? Has he been punished for something? I don’t think so. Also, if there is a God, I’m fairly certain that he/she has far more pressing things to do than distributing wins and losses in sports. At least I hope so 😉
I always resented it a bit when a player believe that God helped him/her winning, because it implies that for some reason the other player hasn’t been equally favored. Rafa has never done this, and that’s one reason why I like him. Agassi often said as much as well when he talked about Michael Chang and his believe system.
No, I think Rafa has done it by hard work, a good team, some good decision making and a big portion of good old fashioned luck.
Sorry, but I feel very strongly about this.
That said, the tennis universe has certainly been a bit nostalgic this year.
Cant agree more! ??
Challenges are given to everyone in life to come out of it stronger…show me 1 person including any of us who has not faced a challenges ..sufferings teach produce endurance , endurance produces character and character produces hope. Rafa would not be the player he is today had he not faced those challenges and I firmly believe that. His adversities have made him stronger as is the case with every person…how will any person develop strength of character unless faced with adversities…No one is born with it 🙂
Did Andy not have a bridesmaid role for way too long before he won a slam ? Novak challenge now also is to make him stronger as a person and that strength is not necessarily on tennis court.
Ofcourse rafa has worked hard , has made adjustments and I am not discounting his efforts. He deserves every bit of it but he fought his way through every adversity and came out stronger .
Facing challenges does not mean punishment in case of good people. Good people will also face challenges in life so that they develop better qualities in the process.
Rafa has said it’s difficult to believe God’s existence and U.Toni doesn’t believe in religions.
During an interview in 2010, Rafa was asked: “Do you believe in God? We see football players crossing themselves. You don’t do that. Do you do praying?”
RAFA answered: “It’s hard to say, ‘I don’t believe in God.’ I would love to know if God exists. But it’s a very difficult thing for me to believe. I don’t know. It’s private and I don’t want to speak about it, but I say, if God exists, you don’t need [to cross yourself] or pray. If God exists, he’s intelligent enough to [do] the important things, the right things.”
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As for U.Toni, Jon Wertheim wrote in 2010:
¤¤ On the subject of religion, I once asked Uncle Toni about what role of faith plays in life. His response: “I don’t believe. I studied history in university. Religion comes from ignorance in people. Tribal societies, when they see a flash of lightning or something unusual, they say it come from the Magician. But when society move forward, and technology discover more, religion goes in the back. For me, is very important to be moral — to be good person. But not religion.” ¤¤
Absolutely crazy stuff at Queen’s. So happy for Kokkinakis and Thompson, especially Kokkinakis!! He has been injured for way too long and it’s frustrating because of how talented he is and how high ranked he could’ve been by now if not for the injury. He still has tons of time though. Funnily, the only top four seed I picked to lose today won as Cilic routinely beat Isner. And Muller just lost 17-19 in the second set breaker to Basilashvili. I hope Muller finds a way to get the win still. He is pissed off lol!!
Muller up a break in the third now hanging in despite the disappointment of losing the second set tiebreak. I picked him to make the QF over Tsonga but it’s gonna be tough now that he’s playing such a long match.
Muller and Cilic have an opportunity now with the top three seeds out. So does Tsonga.
Muller will be too tired to beat Tsonga, don’t forget he won a title on grass last week, so he has played a few matches already.
Oh I did forget that Muller won a title on grass last week. Thanks for the reminder.
I think Cilic has a good shot here. It seems as though he’s playing well. I am not as sure about the state of Tsonga’s game.
Tsonga is unpredictable though. Muller is steadier with his level in my opinion and most importantly he has the huge serve and volley game so he may not be as tired as most would in his situation. Probably more emotional fatigue than anything I guess.
I’m so happy that Rafa will be seeded top four; just hope Fed is too so that Rafa doesn’t need to meet the big four guys until the SF should he reaches that far.
BTW, I wonder what will be Cilic’s seeding at Wimbledon, just hope he’s not in Rafa’s quarter! Cilic looking scarily good on grass.