Andy Murray: 2011 in review and what will happen in 2012

Players Under the Microscope / Sean Calvert / 18 December 2011 / Leave a Comment

Will Andy Murray get 2012 off to a flyer with victory in Melbourne?

"Murray’s goal this year should be to win the Australian Open and he’s
currently around [8.0] to do so. I think that’s his best chance of a Slam in 2012 because of the relative lack of mainstream interest and coverage in the UK due to the time difference and his great recent record in Melbourne."

From reaching the Australian Open final to being humiliated in straight sets, from losing to Donald Young to winning three touranments in a row at the end of the year. It's been an up and down year for Andy Murray but what next, asks Sean Calvert.

With the tennis season having drawn to a close for a short off-season, it's time to take a look back at Andy Murray's year and predict what's in store for the Scot in 2012.

Andy began the year by going straight to the Australian Open with just the Hopman Cup for a warm-up tournament, as he did the previous year and once again it proved to be successful.

Murray reached the final for a second consecutive year, but became the first player in the history of the men's game to lose his first three Slam finals in straight sets.

The Scot's staunchest supporters in the media - largely those who are required to put a positive spin on things for fear of damaging relations with the player - pointed out that Ivan Lendl lost his first four Slam finals.

This is true of course, but three of Lendl's four were close - he took Bjorn Borg to five sets in the French Open of 1981 - the first player to take Borg the distance at Roland Garros since the little known Francois Jauffret five years earlier.

Murray's Melbourne defeat to Novak Djokovic preceded his now almost customary slump and the first round losses to Marcos Baghdatis in Rotterdam, Donald Young at Indian Wells, and Alex Bogomolov Jr in Miami tell a tale.

While I don't blame Murray for having a reaction to a crushing defeat in a Slam final, it does give an insight as to why he is yet to taste victory in such a tournament.

I am asked a lot if Murray will ever win a Slam and have been for years and my answer remains the same as it's always been - and that is 'probably not'.

The man clearly wants it just that little bit too much and until he learns to control his emotions better, he's battling against himself as well as three of the best players the game has ever seen in Djokovic, Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer.

There seems little doubt to me that the regular outbursts that he has on court are counter-productive and it can't be a coincidence that he plays his best tennis - which is at times a match for the very best in the world - when the spotlight is off him.

An example of this is the clay court season this year, where with no
expectations from anyone, including perhaps himself, Murray reached
the semi finals at the Masters events in Rome (where he almost beat
Djokovic) and Monaco before emulating Tim Henman in reaching the French
Open semis.

His superb display at Queen's on the grass led to expectations in some quarters of Wimbledon glory but that went unfulfilled after a defeat to Nadal that while expected, was a chance missed.

Many will remember Murray being a set up in that match and missing a great chance to break in the second and as we've seen time and again, it seemed to trigger something in his brain and he offered little resistance afterwards.

It's a cliché, but it's tough at the top, and you just don't see the Nadals of this world - or the Djokovics for that matter - lose heart like that. They battle back and scrap like hell to regain a foothold in a match. Murray doesn't always appear as if that's the case with
him.

After a disappointing loss to Kevin Anderson in Montreal, Murray's hard-court swing improved when he won in Cincinnati (as tipped in this column) before a highly predictable loss to Nadal in the last four in New York.

Andy had wasted a fair chunk of energy by going two sets down to Robin Haase earlier in the tournament and a lack of focus is to blame on this and other similar occasions.

Again, this is something that the top three very rarely do and further evidence of a problem in the mental side of his game.

He then became embroiled in a furore over the yearly schedule before contradicting himself by taking a wild card into Bangkok despite claims of exhaustion.

He did superbly well in the Asian swing, playing probably his best tennis of the season in winning in Bangkok, Tokyo and Shanghai before again failing in the quarters in Paris on a pudding of a court.

Injury prevented Murray from being a factor at the O2, which was a shame, as I was looking forward to seeing how he coped with the pressure in front of his home fans this year.

Well rested, I can see Murray being a factor in Melbourne again this coming year, but I would love to see him bring a sports psychologist into his team and really work on that side of things to give himself a better chance.

He's up against some incredible opposition and with Juan Martin Del Potro edging closer to his best and David Ferrer on fire, the top five or six is the best in recent memory by a mile.

Murray's game is there to beat them, but he needs to be as close to 100% mentally and physically as possible. Physically, he's made great strides, but there's vitally important work to do on the mental side.

Murray's goal this year should be to win the Australian Open and he's currently around [8.0] to do so. I think that's his best chance of a Slam in 2012 because of the relative lack of mainstream interest and coverage in the UK due to the time difference and his great recent record in Melbourne.

Will he do it? As I said, probably not if the others are fit - but I'd love to see him give himself the best chance of achieving his goals and at the moment, for my money, he's not doing that.