CAMELOT FANTASIES

I always thought Andy's fear of winning far exceeded his fear of losing; although, he'd always say that it was always the fear of losing that paralyzed him in the final and he'd feel his legs heavy more than usual. I don't agree. The fear of winning was a complete unknown factor for him whereas fear of losing was much more familiar to him, as he had been then there one too many times. And surely you don't need too many losses there to experience the fear of losing once you experience it the first time.

The fear of winning was far more overwhelming for him as he didn't know what to expect after that or how he'd react to that. He was in total shock after winning the USO and forgot to celebrate and looked confused and dazed. He got criticized for it a lot too but I understood his salutation. It took a lot of time for him to recover from that win as it took time to truly sunk in. He had one too many losses and close losses too right after the USO. And of course, as suspected, his win came over on hard and away from home, and not on grass where he seemed more comfortable but obviously, the pressure and the unknown both were so much greater there.

Thankfully, Wimbledon came 8/9 months after that and so he had enough time to deal and recover from that win. And I am sure a final appearance at the AO and finally beating Federer in a Major helped his confidence too by the time Wimbledon was around. Let's not forget the Olympics either where he saw back to back win over Nole and Federer but of course, naysayers or rather Federer fans will remind you at this point that, that win was helped by Del Potro, who took Federer to task when he involved him in a marathon match just prior. But what about Nole then? Was he not fresh enough in the semi where Andy straight setted him? This comes especially handy when just a year after in the same venue, Murray beats Nole again in straights in the final no less. This time too Andy supposedly got help from Del Potro, who took Nole to five sets in the semi, but if you go back to the Olympics, you'll see a fresh Nole wasn't much of a good against Murray in the semi anyway. But all in all, this is a no win situation for Andy. It's all about Federer and Nadal in the end.

Anyway, back to the point, I definitely thought it was his fear of winning that held him back but not fear of losing.

great post.

andy know how to play nole well. he almost took him down even on clay in rome a couple of years ago.

I expect murray to come back stronger than ever in 2014. no more playing with great deal of back pain. it held him back.

andy has a big time serve. now he will take that serve to a new level.

he has no problem blasting 135 MPH serves. the back held him back so he was not able to fully explore the possibilities. he has had to play with pain for over 18 months.

andy is my pick for Wimbledon.