Generally in those tournaments which get played on hard courts, Andy Murray is considered as a very tough man to beat because his game is just ideal for that type of surfaces, but, surprisingly, the Scot has never been able to be at his dominating best in the BNP Paribas Open in his career so far.
He always struggles there and he is doing so this year as well. Although, he has won both his matches and has got into the 4th round of the ongoing tournament, but, in both those matches, his performances were just ordinary.
The player which Murray was up against in the third round was Jiri Vesely who is placed more than 70 positions lower than him in the world rankings, but, despite that, the Scot couldn’t crush him. He was in fact in danger of being crushed himself at one point of time as after losing the first set, he had got trailed in the second set too, but, he somehow managed the situation and improved his game just in time to win the last two sets by slender margins to seal the match.
In the post match interview, Murray said, “The standard of tennis was not very high during the match. Both of us were in poor nick and made a lot of mistakes. I am glad that in the latter parts of the match, I played a bit better and won.”
Murray went through an operation not so long ago. So, he was bound to be a little clumsy coming into this season, but, not this much. It seems he just has no rhythm at all and that’s a danger sign for him with matches against the big players coming up.
In the next round, Murray will be facing either Alejandro Falla or Milos Raonic.