How Not to Win a Grand Slam

Andy Murray is following in Roger Federer’s and Rafael Nadal’s footsteps. He just broke the first long standing tennis record. He is the first player to have lost his first three appearances in a grand slam final without winning a single set. That is not the kind of record to inspire confidence in his ability to win one.

Andy Murray

Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have made it part of the game to break records so regularly, chance is if you blinked you missed it. Now Andy Murray has finally set his first all-time record, and it’s not one to be proud of. To have reached three grand slam finals normally would be no mean feat, considering that there are usually two reserved tickets for Roger and Rafael. But to lose all three of them without ever winning a set is not the way to do it.

Watching Andy Murray in the Australian Open final was memorable. If ever young players have to be instructed in how not to win a grand slam, these pictures will serve perfectly well for them. Andy’s performance was deplorable, and so was his body language. Even walking out on court, defeat was already written all over him. It seemed that he knew that Novak Djokovic in his present form would walk all over him.

British media have been writing Andy’s tennis abilities up for two years now. They are doing him disfavor on two counts: His tennis is not as good as they portray it; while it is adequate to be secure in the top ten, he lacks the last edge to take him to the very top. Add to this the constant pressure the pile on him to win a grand slam (after 115,000 years in Roger Federer’s reckoning), and you’ll see that they’ll manage yet to make another Tim Henman of him.

While the media write Andy Murray’s tennis up, they write that of other players down as if they could replicate damaged British society as advocated through schools. I don’t know how far Andy has been damaged by the British educational system which is in shambles. Instead of asking the most of pupils and make them excel, the system has been constantly downgraded to let even the laziest pupil have a positive grade. Let’s hope that Andy knows that the rest of the world will not lower their tennis standard to do him a favor.

Roger Federer once said that talent can be learned, all it takes is a lot of work; with Rafael Nadal, you see that he is working his body to breaking point (and beyond); and now Novak Djokovic has put off his baby nappies and accepts the lessons to be learned from the two top workers in the business. Andy Murray on the other hand wants to take a few days off after having done nothing in the final to win it. He should rather spend more time on the training court, one would think.

Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have pushed each other to unprecedented heights in tennis; and Novak Djokovic seems to gear up to join the club of excellence. All three players share something in common: Roger was allowed to develop in a small country (a tennis dwarf called Switzerland) to burst on the scene fully confident of what he might be able to do; Rafa hid behind the Swiss (and still likes to do that) to keep out of the wind; and Nole is again the product of a tennis dwarf (Serbia).

Will Andy be able to overcome the handicap of coming from a nation with an exalted notion of its tennis abilities? Will he be able to overcome the constant carping for a grand slam win? Right now, this is highly dubious.

Further reading
Giving Up: Key to Success
Jerzy Janowicz and Andy Murray
Tennis With Gay Appeal in London