Andy Murray’s horror run continued with yet one more defeat – his sixth in a row – as he succumbed to the unheralded Tomas Machac in Marseille. That is now comfortably the worst sequence of Murray’s profession.
Murray’s kind hunch has triggered a lot hypothesis about how for much longer he plans to eke out his tennis dotage. But there is no such thing as a obvious prospect of retirement.
When a BBC column just lately questioned whether or not he is perhaps damaging his legacy, Murray replied with an offended social-media submit, writing: “Do me a favour. I’m in a horrible second proper now I’ll offer you that. Most individuals would give up and quit in my scenario proper now. However I’m not most individuals and my thoughts works in a different way. I gained’t give up. I’ll maintain combating and dealing to provide the performances I do know I’m able to.”
Motivation will not be a difficulty for Murray, as that livid submit confirms. He continues to go looking far and large for options. In Marseille, his participant field featured not solely his travelling assistant coach Jonny O’Mara but additionally the famous technical guru Louis Cayer.
But one typically wonders whether or not Murray’s points may need much less to do together with his mechanics than his thoughts. Take, as an example, the double fault he dedicated at 5-5, 30-30 within the first set. Admittedly, this a part of his sport has been patchy of late, with lower than half of his first serves discovering their goal towards Machac. Primarily, although, this important unforced error felt prefer it stemmed from dwindling self-belief. He wouldn’t be the primary ageing athlete to lose his psychological edge.
Inevitably, the double fault quickly begat a break of serve. And from there, Murray was all the time swimming towards the present. There are moments the place he evokes heat recollections, conjuring a deft drop shot or a stinging return. However he can’t string sufficient of those silky touches collectively to mount a critical problem.
On paper, Machac wasn’t the worst of attracts, as his world rating of No 66 locations him someplace across the center of the Marseille subject. He’s considerably undervalued, although: a late developer with critical firepower who has been held again by his hare-brained shot choice. Even right here, there have been some notably unhealthy choices, however he normally managed to bang down a giant serve or a screaming forehand as a Get-Out-Of-Jail card.
Murray was already on a career-worst run after his loss to Benoit Paire, the French maverick, in Montpellier eight days beforehand, and this newest defeat is hardly going to enhance his temper. No less than he didn’t have any rankings factors to defend in Marseille, however in a few weeks he goes to Doha, the place final season he pulled off a collection of unlikely, back-from-the-brink victories to succeed in the ultimate.
If we had been feeling optimistic, we is perhaps tempted to counsel that Doha will set off constructive recollections. But there’s one other facet to this coin. Murray’s nervousness ranges could climb even greater when he is aware of {that a} first-round loss will ship him tumbling some 20 locations down the rankings ladder. At current, he’s hanging on inside the highest 50 by his fingernails.
In different tennis information, Boris Becker introduced that his short-lived teaching stint with Danish star Holger Rune has come to an finish. “I realised that to ensure that this to achieve success, I’d should be obtainable for Holger way more than I can,” mentioned Becker, who’s topic to varied journey bans after his conviction for chapter fraud, and was not current in Melbourne for the current Australian Open. “As a consequence of skilled and personal tasks,” he added, “I can’t give Holger what he wants now.”
And Heather Watson scored her greatest win in seven years as she overcame world No 16 Veronika Kudermetova in straight units in Abu Dhabi. Having began the occasion because the world No 156, Watson got here by way of two rounds of qualifying and is now into the final 16 of the primary draw, the place she is going to play Cristina Bucsa of Spain.
