ANDY MURRAY ON A MISSION
Serbia’s Viktor Troicki no match for in-form Brit
THERE was nothing tricky about Troicki for our Andy.
Britain's tennis hero blasted the sorry Serb off a packed Centre Court with a stunning straight sets victory to storm into the fourth round. He triumphed 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 in just 96 marvellous, magnificent minutes.
It was an awesome signal of intent to inspire his legion of followers. An awesome signal of intent that will intimidate his rivals. For in this formidable form anything is possible.
A first men's champion since Fred Perry in 1936? You better begin to believe it.
For Murray is on a mission and Viktor Troicki, no slouch with a current ranking of 31 in the world, never looked capable of coping with the pumped-up Scot.
What a display. This was pure class. A performance packed with power, panache, skill and style.
He's through to the last 16, safely into the second week having lost only one set and now watch out as he makes his push for glory in earnest. But let's not race away from this win too quickly.
Let's savour it for a while, enjoy the moment and then, only when that's done, should we look ahead to the excitement yet to come.
It's not a phrase used commonly here in the rarefied atmosphere of the All England club but this was great stuff from the nation's favourite.
Not for the first time here, Murray was a man in a hurry. He clearly wanted to make a statement as much as he wanted to beat the rain which was threatening to descend from the gloomy, grey rain clouds that gathered ominously around the famous arena.
What a spoilsport, we all wanted to see the new Centre Court roof in action. But that would have meant an extra half an hour hanging around while the roof came over and the air was stabilised and raised to the required temperature of 24 degrees.
And Murray was evidently in no mood for that. He was straight down to business with the first set rattled off in just 27 minutes, a 6-2 procession to thrill the home fans.
Troicki was stunned. He could make no impression on the Murray serve as the aces just whizzed by him.
And his own serve let him down badly with a string of double faults which surrendered the initiative to the darling of SW19.
Murray ruthlessly turned the screw, with the brilliance and intelligence of his returns and the inevitable consequence was that the Serb was crushed.
It was a similar tale in the second set as Troicki was blown away 6-3 to trail two sets to love inside an hour. The pick of the set was the seventh game when Murray fired down three aces in a row.
He was right in the zone and Troicki had no answer and you could see it. In fact he made absolutely no attempt to disguise it. Poor Viktor looked vanquished, Murray victorious. It was just a matter of time, a case of going through the necessary procedure to confirm what we already knew. Our boy was through.
Statistics can be used and twisted to fit many an argument but not here.
On Centre Court the stats told only one tale - one of Murray's complete dominance. Twelve aces and 16 winners in those two whirlwind sets. And when Murray broke the Serb's serve again in the opening game of the third set the inevitable was becoming imminent.
Only briefly, as the spits of rain became more persistent, did Troicki finally find some resistance. He actually achieved a break point on the Murray serve no less, yes in the fourth game of the third set with one hour and fifteen minutes gone.
The partisan home crowd even cheered the moment, clearly hoping they might see Murray in action for a little bit longer.
But the third seed was not fazed and dealt with it quite imperiously - firing down his 14th ace of the match to save the day.
Troicki's only hope now was of a downpour and a malfunction of the roof. All he got was a torrent of winners as Murray turned the day's most anticipated clash into something of a damp squib. Contest? No contest.
And up next Murray's big mate and practice partner Stanislas Wawrinka. They might be pals but the Swiss will almost certainly be rolled over in similar fashion and Murray will be in the quarter finals and then the place will really start rocking.
Murray said: "Today was very good, I felt a little bit uncomfortable at the start, it was very different conditions to the other day.
"I'll have to give myself an A for coming through the first week each win is a big one here but I'm going to have to play better next week if I want to come home with the title."
This article has 8 comments
andy murray is a real thing!!!!!!!
By rommie. Posted June 29 2009 at 5:37 PM.
Can we all stop this compulsive British moaning - we have this rising young hopeful lad who could possibly lift this title and give Britian something to applaud. So come on Britain never mind saying maybe its Federers year back our own man to the hilt.
By maggie. Posted June 28 2009 at 10:35 PM.
True the guys must be a dairly solid and upcoming player but I meant Murray will have tougher tests who might have more experience of playing in big games like JCF and Roddick/Hewitt.
I would love Murray to win (although if its Federer then fine as well!)
By Mark. Posted June 28 2009 at 5:41 PM.
whilst everyone was talking about Andy Murray beating no-hopers, the real tennis was going on, on court No.1, Juan Carlos Ferrero and Fernando Gonzalez were playing the best match of the championships so far, an absolute incredible match which former world no.1 Juan Carlos Ferrero won in 5 sets, Ferrero did well @ Queens reaching the semi's lost to Murray, but this is now the old french open champion back to his best,
Good Luck JCF
By MO. Posted June 28 2009 at 5:15 PM.
Go on Andy, do it for Scotland and Hibs!!!!
By Ackey. Posted June 28 2009 at 5:11 PM.
What do you mean "someone decent"? Troicki is no. 31 in the world! That means that he is the 31st best tennis player out of 6.7 billion! I'd say that makes him pretty damned decent in anyones book!
By Gayle Anderson. Posted June 28 2009 at 4:55 PM.
Come on Britain get behind andy. So much hardship in this country at the moment he's a ray of sunshine. And he has the ability to win this championship.
By Keith. Posted June 28 2009 at 11:37 AM.
Lets wait to see what haoppens when he actually plays somebody half decent and who has experience of big matches to cope with the pressure of playing Murray on his "home" turf.
Still think Federer will win but good luck to Andy.
By Mark. Posted June 28 2009 at 10:01 AM.