Season in review: Murray was unable to play in London last season after undergoing back surgery and for a while it looked like a slow return to tennis would leave him out of the year-end championship yet again. The 27-year-old turned in a decent quarterfinal result at the Australian Open and survived several tough matches to reach the French Open semis, but he did not appear in a single final from the start of 2014 through the U.S. Open.
Consistently solid but unspectacular performances had Murray in decent shape for the World Tour Finals but kept him far from being a guarantee. Then a hot streak in which he won 18 of 20 matches and captured three titles in the span of five weeks all but clinched his place in the eight-man field prior to Paris. This is the first time since 2011 that Murray went without a major title, but–all things considered–it was not an entirely disappointing one.
2014 record: 58-18
Fall record (post-U.S. Open): 20-3
Best tournament: French Open semifinals
d. Andrey Golubev 6-1, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4
d. Marinko Matosevic 6-3, 6-1, 6-3
d. Philipp Kohlschreiber 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 12-10
d. Fernando Verdasco 6-4, 7-5, 7-6(3)
d. Gael Monfils 6-4, 6-1, 4-6, 1-6, 6-0
l. to Rafael Nadal 6-3, 6-2, 6-1
Biggest win at different tournament: d. Tommy Robredo 3-6, 7-6(7), 7-6(8) in Valencia final
World Tour Finals appearances: 5
World Tour Finals record: 9-7
Record against other World Tour Finals qualifiers: 45-43
vs. Novak Djokovic: 8-15
vs. Roger Federer: 11-11*
vs. Stan Wawrinka: 8-6
vs. Kei Nishikori: 3-0*
vs. Tomas Berdych: 4-6
vs. Milos Raonic: 1-3*
vs. Marin Cilic: 10-2
*denotes in the same group
Quotable: “People are going to ask me all the time why I’ve had such a poor year by my standards. You’re allowed sometimes to say something in response to that. I don’t tend to do that often, but..look…it’s been a hard year, a tough year, but it hasn’t been a bad year. It could have been a lot worse. I had to dig deep at the end in some ways to salvage the year. But it’s been a good year; not been my best, but I would’ve signed up for being in this position when I had the surgery last year, I think.”
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“People are going to ask me all the time why I’ve had such a poor year by my standards.”
Great response from Andy. Always the realist.
I just hope he doesn’t let the rowdy Rent-a-Mob element at the O2 don’t get to him. They will be baying for his blood after his pro-Scottish support on the eve of the referendum.
3rd para edit:
I just hope he doesn’t let the rowdy Rent-a-Mob element at the O2 get to him
at least Davis Cup is in Scotland!
Glad they didn’t go straight there from Paris – guess whose effigy they’d have been burning in the Home Counties on Bonfire Night !
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-29921797
Have to say, Muzz will probably never again experience ‘home advantage’ playing in London, and I expect the crowd to be behind Roger again when they meet next week. I’ll always be with ya, Muzz, but don’t know what you were thinking on Night of the Tweet, ‘cos if you thought the aftermath to the joke about the English football team was bad, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet!
Never did. The O2 crowd always cheered for Fed over Muzza (or anyone else for that matter).
^^^^^The O2 crowd is atypical for a major tennis event. Yes there are plenty of knowledgeable tennis fans but I reckon they are outnumbered by people with only a sketchy knowledge of tennis and who treat the event as entertainment. It only takes a few hostile people to turn such an audience against a player. What happened to Murray in 2012 was as bad if not worse than the RG crowd when they turn nasty.
On the contrary, Nadal/Fed matches in Spain and the 2012 Gold Medal match are atypical, not the 02 crowd at least when it comes to Federer, knowledgeable or not.
The latter was more of an example of the Olympic crowd cheering for home country moreso than Andy himself. Federer was the crowd favourite over Andy three weeks prior at the Wimbledon final.
In every other Federer match worldwide, he is the crowd favourite no matter who he plays. Even Giles Simon recently begged the French fans not to cheer Federer in their upcoming DC final tie to be played in France.
Just wondering BTW who have the RG crowd ever been nasty toward in your opinion.
Interesting you should ask that. The only really objectionable behaviour I can recall was when Rafa was booed off the court for retiring with an injury from the 2008 Paris Masters and again after the Soderling match. I was present in 2005 when Rafa put Federer out and there was definitely no obvious hostility towards Rafa then although they were pretty subdued when he won. Maybe they got progressively more unhappy when Rafa made a habit of beating TMF.
They are excessively partisan – more so perhaps than most other countries – and go over the top at anything they perceive as gamesmanship or bad behaviour by the opposition. But then so do many other nationalities. However I don’t think they are capable of turning on one of their own countrymen as happened to Andy at the O2.
I know Federer always has his quota of supporters at Wimbledon but what makes you say he was the crowd favourite to win against Andy in 2012?
—Federer was the crowd favourite over Andy three weeks prior at the Wimbledon final.—
It’s not a wonder – English people have punished Andy Murray at least since year 2006.
Technically, in hindsight, Muzza was a slight crowd favourite but it should have been closer to Davis Cup with Muzza trying to become the first Wimbledon champion in over , which I suppose is too much to expect of the traditionally reserved Wimbledon crowd. Against any other player than Fed, it would have been much more obvious (as it was at the Olympics but admittedly that was likely a different crowd.
My point stands though. The 02 crowd is not atypical when it comes to Fed favouritism.
I like Novak and Fed in London. There could always be a surprise and that’s what makes it interesting. It would be nice to see Murray close out the year with a good result here. He’s gotten back into decent form. But when he plays Novak these days, he can’t seem to physically hang with him. I would love to see one of the classic matches that these two have played in the past. It would also be great if Murray could get to the semis out of his group.
For me, Nole’s a no-brainer to win the whole thing as I don’t see anyone, Roger included, coming near him right now. With Muzz, I just don’t know these days. Roger and Muzz are both beatable by the rest, but I’m staying positive and backing Muzz to make the final. I think it’s really been dawning on him the damaging effect the lower seeding’s been having, dragging him even further down the rankings. Forever meeting Nole in the QFs during his recovery has taken a toll on his points tally. A deep run in London could put him into top 4 seeds for Oz.
an injured Rafa could also put him in top 4 of Aussie
Yep, that did occur to me just after I posted, but I wouldn’t want it to happen that way.
likewise
^^^^When I saw the newspapers the next morning my first thought was ‘oh no, not again’.
First time, sane people saw it as the joke it was – the real joke was on the offended ones. The Tweet was clearly no joke – and the real ‘no joke’ is now on Muzz. Part of me saw it has brave of him to express his opinion (even though not apparently a longstanding one – does he even still hold it?); a bigger part of me thought, Why say it when you can’t even vote and nobody’s even asking you? Are you sure you’re even going to have the same political opinion by Wimbie next year when the best you can hope for is polite applause … Uh-oh, self destruct a-la-muzz, off court this time.
at least D-Cup is in Scotland
I’m more optimistic than you Alex. There may be a few hecklers but I’m sure the majority of the Wimby centre court genteel middle-England crowd won’t hold it against him. Though I doubt he’ll get voted Sportsman of the Year anytime soon. However the comments sections on tennis blogs and in the national press will be awash in vitriol.
Like you, my knee jerk reaction was respect for him having the chutzpah to speak his mind and damn the consequences. Then my heart sank when I thought about the fall-out. Bet Kim gave him stick for putting his foot in his mouth. Again. 🙂
I read Eurosport.com & comments there for years (not currently). English-speaking people were very hostile towards A.Murray. They hadn’t forgotten what he said in 2006.
Wikipedia: ¤¤ Much of the discussion about Murray’s national identity began prior to Wimbledon 2006, when he was quoted as saying he would “support anyone but England” at the 2006 World Cup. English ex-tennis player Tim Henman confirmed that the remarks had been made in jest and were only in response to Murray being teased by journalist Des Kelly and Henman. Murray decided not to endorse either side of the argument in the 2014 referendum on Scottish independence, citing the abuse he had received after his comments in 2006. ¤¤
^^^^^Pity he changed his mind.
Peter Bodo sums up Murray very well:
http://espn.go.com/blog/peter-bodo/post/_/id/825/why-andy-murray-went-rogue
Gussie: I am fairly sure that people who are anti Andy are mostly youngish, male and football fans to boot. You also need to know that it’s a long standing Scottish tradition to make that crack particularly when it concerns sport.