In every tournament this year, bar one, Andy Murray has either reached the first round or reached the semi finals or better. This suggests that slams aside, he bases his entire interest in a tournament in whether he makes it past round 1. As soon as a first round match goes against him he struggles. Often he looks flat and disinterested before improving as the tournament progresses. In a way, who can blame him? With no challenge to his 4 ranking and millions in the bank, his mind probably wanders to a week of call of duty as soon as the first set is lost. But is there anything to this or just a statistical anomaly.
The defeats
Rotterdam
Bagdhatis d Murray 6-4 6-1
In his first match since the Australian Open final defeat, Murray faced a tough test against Marcos Bagdhatis as he attempted to avoid a repeat of his 2010 slump. Things went well to start with as Murray broke twice to lead 3-0. Slump? What slump? Things quickly went wrong as bagdhatis won 12 of the next 14 games to cruise through. Prior to entering this tournament
Murray had planned a lengthy break after his Melbourne disappointment. It seems clear the moment that Bagdhatis broke back that his mind wandered to a week spent indoors on the ps3 rather than winning a meaningless tennis tournament.
Indian Wells Masters
Young d Murray 7-6 6-3
Murray had one of the easier draws in this tournament as he faced 143 ranked Donald Young. Once again, Murray took an early break before losing interest after a tight first set. An immediate break at the start of the second set was the shape of things to come and an hour and a half after going on court, Murray was done. He was free to go to Vegas and gamble, or sit at home in the dark playing cod.
Miami Masters
Bogomolov d Murray 6-1 7-5
In the closest thing to a home tournament outside of Wimbledon, Murray would be hoping for good things. However, with his ps3 located so nearby in the city he trains in over winter, it was likely thoughts would wonder to cod at the first sign of adversity. After losing the first set 6-1, Murray had already made his mind up despite Bogomolovs best efforts to throw it away, and went through 7-5. He was rewarded with another tennis match, something Murray did not have to worry about.
Montreal Masters
Anderson d Murray 6-3 6-1
Not even being twice Champion and having to defend 1000 ranking points was enough to motivate Murray to recover from being broken in his first service game of the set. After losing that set 6-3, the second set was barely a contest as Murray contemplated a week of Pro Ev Soccer. He quickly persuaded Nadal that this would be more fun, the Spaniard losing in a similarly shocking upset to Dodig.
The victories
This column needs to be split into two. One to show the Grand Slam matches, where it is clear he is willing to dig deep to win, and one for the other events.
Grand Slams
Australian Open
Murray d Beck 6-3 6-1 4-2
A simple victory, with Murray rarely troubled. Had this been a Masters Event he would probably have still progressed such was the lack of opposition. Beck retired late on with a shoulder injury, raising questions of why after 2.5 sets, he couldn't just play the last two games.
French Open
Murray d Prodon 6-4 6-1 6-3
Despite facing an unheralded qualifer, Murray did struggle in the first set. Serving for the set at 5-4, he was broken back and in lesser tournaments may well have slumped to defeat. However he battled back and broke immediately to take it 6-4. After a simple second set, Prodon led 3-1 in the third. Murray reeled off 5 straight matches to demonstrate he did actually care about this tournament.
Wimbledon
Murray d Gimeno-Traver 4-6 6-3 6-0 6-0
You may notice something with this match, as it is the first time in this list Murray has lost the first set and recovered. Played under the roof at Wimbledon, a condition unique in its ability to make Murray turn routine victories into stressful epics, G-T snuck the first set 6-4. Had this not been a Grand Slam, Murray would have been straight onto his phone arranging an online came of cod within the next hour and tanked the second set. However, he got his act together and actually won 15 games in a row to finish with.
Other Events
Monte Carlo Masters
Murray d Stepanek 6-1 6-4
Murray had not won a match since January and was on his least favourite surface against a tricky opponent. However having broken early in the first set Murray held serve and won the first set. He led 4-1 in the second before the Stepanek fightback began. Had this occurred a set earlier, Murray would have likely given up, but winning the match from 6-1 4-4 required less effort and he held on. Murray went on to take the tournament seriously and was unlucky to lose to Nadal in the semi final with a mysterious elbow injury that appeared in a timely manner to act as an excuse for the defeat.
Rome Masters
Murray d Malisse 6-2 2-6 6-3
This match looked fairly straightforward as Murray raced into a 6-2 first set lead. However he lost concentration and lost the second set to a similar margin. There must have been some dilemma at the changeover before the third set as Murray decided whether he wanted another week on the ps3, or if he had been on court long enough that he may as well get a win and take the tournament seriously. He recovered to sneak the third set and went on to choke horribly against Djokovic in the semi final. Horrible. Serving for the match then choking horribly. It was really awful choking.
Queens Club
Murray d Malisse 6-3 5-7 6-3
The second Murray v Malisse first round match up in a month helped hammer out the theory. Clearly, the question of whether or not Murray will try in a tournament is dependent totally on the first set. Again Murray had to wrestle with the decision of whether or not to try and win the third set or drive home for cod. Despite his house being so nearby, and the ps3 presumably set up in some sort of heroic home cinema effort, Murray took the third set and then decided to actually win a title.
Cincinnati
Murray d Nalbandian 6-4 6-1
The most recent event showed once again that once Murray has won the first set of a tournament, he is good to go. A comfortable victory over Nalbandian paving the way for a solid week of tennis which culminated in a good victory over a one armed Djokovic. Djokovic felt sorry for Murray after his last attempt at closing out a match against him and just retired. Murray won a very ugly trophy, and the first round theory held up.
Conclusion
So there we have it. If Andy Murray wins the first set of the first round, then he will take the tournament seriously. If he loses it, he tanks and goes home to play call of duty, or if he can persuade Nadal to throw a match, Pro Ev.
