Good morning, folks.
I did not see Andy's match last night. First of all, it started awfully late and then I have this health issue going on so I did not want to tire myself out. Besides, I taped it but I found out this morning it didn't tape the whole match because it went over their allocated hours and I guess they stopped broadcasting after that. Too bad because I'd have really liked to watch it today. I'll find it somewhere in CETs collection though I am sure.
It looks to be a tough loss since Andy won the 1st set and then went on to lose the next two sets and the match especially given the 2 TBs.
Andy's still making slow progress but progress nonetheless. He played some really good players here (Andujar, Simon, Dimitrov etc.) and that must have given him a lot of confidence - win or loss. I consider them Tire 2 players but still they come with variety and different skill sets. And Andy should really be playing these types of players first. And even if had won last night's match there's no guarantee he would have won the title since Anderson is playing really for a year now, so that would have been equally challenging.
I hope he plays both IW and Miami but he probably won't come into full terms until Queens. The grass, the home crowd, the atmosphere everything will and should motivate him. The clay season might motivate him in the meantime too since it's still a challenge for him but perhaps not as much as the grass. His desire is there, it's just not clicking on the whole yet and the level is still not where it should be. But he's a professional player so I am sure he knows what it will take him to get there.