CAMELOT FANTASIES

Andy showed sheer guts and clutch to seal a chilling 3 sets victory over a firing and motivated Robredo. This is by far the best match I've watched in 2014. The quality and the fight they had in them and the amount of drama that it involved was really otherworldly. Respect for both, really. Andy obviously wanted it slightly more than Robredo in the end and that was really the deciding factor of the match. While most wrote him off after certain points during the match, even his most ardent fans I might as well add, it was Andy who never gave up even for a second and continued to believe in himself. Rest is history.

Now an in-form typical Andy wouldn't have had any problems putting Robredo aside in straight sets as he usually does - especially on hard courts. We have seen Andy routine the likes of Federer, Nadal and Nole in Masters in the past but things have changed since then. A post Wimbledon and post surgery Andy is a different man, we all know it. He had fallen as far bask as 11 in the pro ranking and we've even seen threads like 'Andy will never get back to top 10 again' and many other threads like that - things were that bad. We've seen him struggle against himself week in and week out. The non-stop muttering, smashing of racquets, shouting at his box - all the elements of struggle were all evident in each match. The battle was so big for Andy since 2013 Wimbledon, at times it felt like as if he's now given a bigger challenge after winning his 1st Slam and Wimbledon - to be or not to be a tennis player. What is life after you conquer your biggest dream. 

Another factor was, Andy has played one too many matches the last few weeks to the point that even non-Murray fans didn't think he'd survive another battle. So Andy didn't really go into today's match feeling rather fresh. It was in fact quite the opposite.

On top of that, Robredo a 32 year old tennis veteran, upon realizing that he's now at the end of his career, desperate to capitalize as much as possible. In fact, he's playing perhaps the best tennis in his life.

So all those factors were there and it made the match much, much more difficult for Andy. In an ideal world, a much fitter and younger Andy would have seen a win with ease but we don't live in an ideal world and things are never that black and white.

Having said all that, there really wasn't any loser in that match. In my eyes, they are both winners. I must correct one thing though, as I read through some of the threads after a long time after the match, while Robredo had 5 MPs, in actuality he had only 2 true MPs. The other 3 were on Andy's serve and they were on serve in the TBs. Andy himself had a true MP at 5-4 against Robredo. Robredo didn't choke as much as people like to see that. Had he chocked he would have given that MP away to Andy but he fought hard and was very clutch. I guess some people just want to see what they really like to see and then they go and twist things to suit their argument. So even though Andy played those MPs better, he did so by putting in incredible effort that most of us couldn't have expected from any player, so let's just give credit where credit is due. And acknowledge the fact that, Robredo never choked. It was Andy's sheer will to fight and clutch act that saw him through those MPs. Andy just took himself on another level- a level that we don't typically see in tennis matches especially on big points.

But the most damning truth out there in all of this is, Andy is the better player regardless and mentally tougher than Robredo - he has 2 Slams, 1 Olympics Gold and 9 Masters to support that.