US Open Betting / Barry Millns / 22 August 2008 /

Despite his first round Olympics exist the Brit has made good progress this summer. But he must learn to dictate play, says Barry Millns

At a career-high No.6 in the ATP Rankings and fifth in the ATP Race, Andy Murray returns to Flushing Meadows in New York as a major contender. His Olympic failure aside, the British No.1 has undoubtedly been one of the headline makers of the past couple of months and will be relishing the chance to shine again on his favourite surface at a tournament he is currently trading at [16.5] to win.

Four years ago Murray made the tennis world sit up and take note of his potential by wining the junior US Open title. A gangly teenager back then it remained to be seen if, unlike the rest of his British contemporaries, he could bridge the gap to the main tour - we should not have worried.

Turning pro the following year he soared from a lowly 514th in the world to No.65 twelve months later, another season ended with him at No.17 and were it not for last year's serious wrist injury he would surely have finished 2007 higher than No.11, having briefly peaked at No.8.

As has been well documented Murray's splits with former coaches Mark Petchey and Brad Gilbert raised many eyebrows at the time. But there is no doubt that the Team Murray has assembled around him heading into 2008 has been a more comfortable fit with Miles Maclagan (coach), Louis Cayer (coaching consultant), Matt Little (strength and conditioning coach), Jez Little (physical conditioner) and Andy Ireland (physiotherapist) all helping to bring out the best in him.

He goes into the season's final grand slam with a 35-13 win/loss record since the start of the year which he began with a bang by winning titles in Doha and Marseille. Those came either side of a shock first round loss at the Australian Open to eventual runner-up Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Murray then played sublimely to beat Roger Federer [4.4] for the second time when they met in the first round of Dubai. But as we had seen in the past, getting in the right frame of mind to follow up such a big win proved beyond him as he struggled past Fernando Verdasco and then swore his way to defeat by Nikolay Davydenko [180.00] in the quarterfinals, having beaten the Russian in their three previous encounters.

It was tough to watch and worrying again to see Murray become his own worst enemy. The trend continued in Indian Wells and Miami before he turned his attention to clay.

Two wins in Monte Carlo only flattered to deceive when he came up against Novak Djokovic [4.6], who had won all of their first three meetings on the ATP Tour and duly thrashed him 6-0, 6-4. As the Serb pointed out afterwards Murray needs to be more aggressive because at the highest level he cannot rely solely on his counter-punching skills - it is all about trying to dictate play rather than just react to it.

Five wins in his next eight matches showed some signs of improvement. But it was back on grass at Wimbledon where he really took a major step in the right direction, a new improved attitude on court climaxing in his epic fourth round victory over Richard Gasquet to reach his first grand slam quarterfinal.

The manner in which he was totally outplayed by Rafael Nadal [2.46] was very disappointing but in retrospect no disgrace bearing in mind what the Spaniard has achieved since. But the big question for Murray fans was how he would follow up back in North America - winning eight of his next nine matches was how, a first ever victory over Djokovic to reach the semi-finals in Toronto, followed up with another to claim his first Masters Series title in Cincinnati.

Nadal remains the one leading player Murray has yet to beat and while they could meet again in the semi-finals in New York, Britain's best has some potentially tough hurdles to jump beforehand. The likes of Mikhail Youzhny, Stanislas Wawrinka, Gilles Simon, Juan Martin Del Potro [60.0] plus world No.4 David Ferrer [320.00] are all in his quarter and although Murray should head in with high hopes, after Beijing he and we must take nothing for granted.

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