He lives and dies by;

Whatever your tennis is, I can do it better! Or whatever your best shot is, I can do it better!

There are many things that separate the real good ones from the not so good ones, Andy Murray puts together one of the best packages in today's men's tennis.

- No respect for his opponents, bordering on arrogance.

- Good athletic speed and co-ordinations.

- Mentally, developing and improving.

- Technically, pretty sound.

- Tactically, a natural.

- Emotionally, a gun-powder keg.

- Creative and impulsive.

- Opportunistic.

- Stubborn as they can come.

Andy uses these and many other of his natural abilities to deny his opponents the big W at the end.

How? Take for example:

- The last match in Shangai Masters 2008 against And Roddick, a big server but a clumsy mover at the net. Murray could have gotten into a slug fest against Roddick and probably beat him, nevertheless he chose to pick on Roddick's Achilles which is poor movement and weak volleys at the net. What did you see? A frustrated Roddick being brought to the net un-willingly and being passed lobed and toyed with at the net like a regular club player! And to ad insult to injury Murray (whatever your best shot is, I can do it better) served better than Roddick.

- Against Novak Djokovic, he knows that Novak is a consistency machine that loves pace and rhythm. What does Andy do to Novak? Andy is steady as a wall does not miss, runs everything down, does take pace off of his shots, forces Novak to generate his own pace and leads him into middle school unforced mistakes. On the other hand Andy uses the backhand slice low to the young Serb double handed backhand who can not match it and Andy ruthlessly takes the pickings and hits (his best shot) the down the line backhand winner or the inside out forehand winner as a keeping you honest choice!

- Roger Federer can beat Andy but, he has a very hard time with the Scott because, early on his career Andy Murray realized that the backhand slice was a very important weapon so he developed it and today, I think he hits a better backhand slice than Roger. So what happens? Whenever they both engage on a backhand slice battle who is the first to get the short ball for a spanking? Andy!

So Federer changes and starts hitting more cross court topsin backhands instead. Well, that is exactly what Andy loves to which is to hit his down the line bread and butter double handed backhand winner! And if Federer decides to get creative with the drop shots and play the cat and mouse game, Andy becomes Mr. drop shot and the cat.

Faced with a chameleon that is committed to take him on shot per shot, play by play, Roger starts showing is frustration signs of old by hitting frames on the backhand and making some pretty routine unforced forehand errors.

Will we see this between Roger Federer and Andy Murray today the 14th of November 2008 in Shangai? Very likely yes! Murray will want to get rid of Federer in the round-robin now, he knows that in a possible final match-up Roger can be a lot more dangerous.

Unlike many players around the tour Andy has no respect for his opponents on court. He knows no masters and he admires no one! His goal is winning, semi-finalist or finalist is just not enough for him, only the BIG WIN satisfies his ambition. For that he can be outright aggressive and in your face, a toned down version of a certain John McEnroe in the past. These days when players are on the verge of apologizing to each other for winning and almost trade kisses at the net, it must be an outrage. I think a rebel is good for the game!

Watch Andy and follow his mantra (Whatever your tennis is, I can do it better! Or whatever your best shot is, I can do it better!) and you will see your game improve in a hurry.

Sergio Cruz

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Back From Tennis - What makes Andy Murray so dangerous? to Tennis Cruz Main Page

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