CAMELOT FANTASIES

I saw Andy's match yesterday and I have a few things to say on that one too.

Personally I don't feel Andy would have won if that controversial point had gone in his favour. The fact that he let that bother him so much is very telling. But some Murray fans will never overcome their own biased feelings to see that. If Andy had any intention winning that match, his attitude would have been quite different. He was up a break in the 2nd, wasn't he? And he did get broken back, didn't he? So why so hung up on that point alone? And even Andy had won that point, where's the guarantee he still would have not gotten broken at that point? He was after all serving from behind to stay in the match. And also, had it gone to the TB, where's the guarantee he would have won that TB? Have you kept records of his TBs this season? And even if he had won the 1st set, say, where's the guarantee he would have won the match? If you did then you'd be seriously undermining the No. 1 hard court player's ability on his best surface. So let's not get ahead ourselves and blame the loss to Nole's apparent 'cheating' of the pointonly. That's not why Andy lost. And if he did lose it because of that then it's rather a shame and a pity than it is anything else.

Sampras would tell you that you basically have to adopt the idea of amnesia in order to win. Because **** happen during a match and things will not be extremely fair as much as you like to see it. The idea is to focus on the present and forget the past as quickly as possible as if nothing happened. You don't think about the future either because it's not here yet so you can't allow yourself to get ahead of yourself. You have to be here and concentrate on the point you will be playing right now. You can't let yourself get all hung over on a lost point. Only then you will be able to win if you stay focused on the current point. Rome wasn't built in a day after all. It had to be done one step at a time. One point at a time. As cliche as it sounds it's the ultimate truth so know the truth.

Now as to the point, Nole didn't cheat as he admitted himself to Andy right at that moment that he had gone over the net. The call then was ultimately for the Chair Umpire to take. What Nole could have done, he could have been supportive of Andy and could have approached the Umpire and could have told him the truth. But Nole was too tight at that point since the first set itself was tight as Andy was being the aggressor, so Nole didn't want to miss a golden opportunity. As much as Andy is not back in the game yet fully, you can never underestimate his ability especially the caliber of a  player he is. Yes, he's not on top of his game yet but it's only a matter of time now that he gets on top of things and yesterday's match was lingering with that possibility all along.  In that sense, yes Nole as gracious as he generally is, got a bit greedy and took the point away from Andy. Ideal would have been to play the point again as the ball didn't even reach over this side of the net but Nole got too cautious anyway.

I am not obviously seeing that as a huge deal - this lost point. I am more bothered with Lendl's coaching. What had he taught Andy all this time if not how to get over the bad calls, points etc. that seems to have damaged Andy far more than anything else since he gets so distracted. Sampras would have taught you that first along with how to serve. I am just not very convinced with Lendl's coaching since not only he did not stick to Andy's side when he needed him the most but also, he wasn't able to convert Andy's mind in the way it should have been converted. Andy, after all, took a very long time to come back and his mentality is still not there yet. I do think he's about 90% back and will be in full force come grass season, but things were to go to the right direction then the mentality should have been there first. Still nothing is lost in the big of schemes of course.