I’m really
pleased and relieved for Andy Murray for winning the Queen’s championships. I
can imagine that being the only realistic UK contender to win Wimbledon weighs
heavily on this man’s shoulders and I
like the way Andy just get’s on with it and doesn’t let the pressure get to
him.
Clearly the turning for him was being a losing
finalist last year’s Wimbledon and him probably feeling that he had let the
country down. I felt his pain as he shed those tears and with that annoying Sue
Barker asking him silly questions must have compounded the pain.
Yes he is no
Tim Henman and that to me is a good thing because I watched as Heman was the
media darling did and said all the right things but at the end of day Heman has
no slams to show for his efforts. Whilst Andy is disliked in some quarters
because of the comments he made years ago and has nothing to do with his tennis. What
I like about Andy’s game is that it has evolved over time. Andy’s serve has
improved and return of serve is nearly as good as Nadal.
I think that
there are two key areas that I attribute to Andy’s success and the first would
be his fitness and secondly his coach. Andy has really improved his fitness I
remember three years ago he was very thin and he would often lose five set
matches. However he has worked on that and now it is not a problem.
Secondly his
coach Ivan Lendl, Lendl is a legend himself and I think he has brought the
winners mentality to Andy’s game I don’t really think was there before. So I am
cautiously optimistic that Andy will be more successful at Wimbledon than he
was last year.
Elena
Baltacha has also done well this weekend as she won the Nottingham Open granted
it was like a tier three tournament but a win is still a win. At Elena’s age
being successful is not going to be easy and there were rumours that she was
considering retirement but clearly that has now been put on hold.
I am not
sure Elena really has the game to challenge the top fifty and her lack of
movement around the caught could be a casing point. Elena does have a very good
serve but with the recent injuries that she has had it has set her back.
I think if
the Wimbledon draw is kind to her she might make it to the second or possibly third
round before exiting the tournament and this would hopefully help her to get
some much needed ranking points.
Daniela Hantuchova
did very well to win Aegon Birmingham championships and recently has been
struggling but maybe this grass court title may mean a better Wimbledon for
her.
Heather
Watson season is very slowly starting didn’t particularly do well at Aegon
Birmingham last week and today she is playing at Eastbourne championships
against a very good USA players Vavara. I think that based on current form she
would do very well to beat Vavara.