Andy Murray won his first career title since winning Wimbledon in the summer of 2013 in China, coming back from a set down to beat Tommy Robredo 5-7, 7-6, 6-1 to win the Shenzhen Open; he saved five match points in the process.
Murray has endured a difficult 2014: he failed to retain any of the titles he won in 2013; split from coach Ivan Lendl and has suffered injury problems throughout. Although he managed a stunning run to the French Open semi-finals—clay is his weakest surface—he failed to get past the quarter-finals in any of the majors on his preferred surface. Though he was never likely to win any of the latter two majors—his injury problems, coupled with a change in coach, meant that he wasn’t able to hit his best form—there still was a case of “what might’ve been” lingering around after his straight-sets quarter-final loss to Grigor Dimitrov. At the US Open, had he been able to beat Novak Djokovic in the quarter-finals—he was roundly beaten by the Serb—only Kei Nishikori and Marin Cilic would be standing in the way of something of a surprising third major win.
To add more woe to his difficult year, Murray provoked the anger of many Unionists across the United Kingdom as he announced on twitter that we would be voting “Yes” in the Scottish Independence Referendum. Murray received vile hate messages from his followers and the tweet had a very bad effect on his image in the public. However, the Briton, as he still is, despite Alex Salmond’s best efforts, let his tennis do the talking in China as he ended his trophy drought and fought back from the brink to beat Robredo.
Murray was broken twice as he lost the first set 5-7. He was far from his best, starting the match off with a double fault, and it seemed that Murray’s wait for an ATP title may well be extended. Things began to look even more worrying for him as he went 6-2 behind in the tie-break in the second set, but he fought back to win 11-9 and take the match into a third and final set. Murray thereupon never looked like losing as he wrapped up the final set 6-1 and won the title with ease.
What next for Murray? Whilst the British press are much more interested in what we achieves in the majors, Murray’s immediate concern is getting into the top eight for the ATP Tour Finals in London in November. He currently lies tenth in the rankings, 105 points behind eighth-placed Tomas Berdych, but with a maximum 2500 points on offer in his next three tournaments at the China Open in Beijing, Shanghai Masters and BNP Paribas Masters in Paris (all on hard court), Murray is still very much in the running to play at the 02 Arena once again.
Murray has a long way to go before he’ll be back to his best and able to challenge for majors and other big tournaments again, but his win in Shenzhen will give him the confidence to push on and win some more titles and end 2014 on a high. Murray’s aims for the rest of the year should be to qualify for the Tour Finals, perform well there, cement a partnership with new coach Amélie Mauresmo as effective as that which he had with Ivan Lendl and stay injury-free as he prepares to make an assault on the first major of 2015, the Australian Open. Already concentrating on the next major in the calendar when Murray has so much ahead of him. What a hypocrite I am.
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