Aussie Open – Federer and Murray in Tough Battle for the Title
September 29th, 2009 byAfter some British bookmakers revealed that the favorite to win the Australian Open title is Andy Murray, the reaction from Roger Federer and some other tennis players have reacted surprised about it, because for them Andy Murray is a good player but still needs more tennis to compare to star players such as Nadal or Federer itself.
Federer stated that it took him a lot of time, years actually, to win a Grand Slam and Andy Murray has not even won one Grand Slam to be considered by bookmakers as a favorite player in a major tournament. He also has explained that the defending champion is Novak Djokovic, and not Andy Murray who has only finished two times beyond the fourth round on a Grand Slam and his best performance was last year in the final for the US Open.
Federer also said that Rafael Nadal had an incredible season last year in major tournaments and with all his accomplishments it would make a lot of more sense to believe that the Spaniard could be among the favorites to win such title, but not yet Murray, even though he is aware that he has lost against Murray twice this month. Anyway, Murray doesn’t care about the rumors and he is just concentrating in playing at his best.
“It doesn’t make any difference whether people expect you to win or not. It doesn’t change my mentality,” Murray said. “The more matches you play, you realize what the bookies are saying doesn’t make any difference once you get on the court, whether they are saying good things or bad things.”
For Murray this is just an experience to learn about and he says that he is not afraid of playing against Federer; he will be able to play against him until the final if both get there, but he says that every time that he plays against the Swiss star he is less nervous about the situation. Murray is on the top half of the draw, so he may have to face Rafael Nadal in the semifinals as well.
Federer is trying to improve last season’s performance since it was kind of disappointing for some people. He lost opportunities to obtain some Grand Slams titles, in which he was the defending champion and favorite; however this year the Swiss entered with an strong mentality and with a mature attitude he is trying to leave behind what he went through last year, including a batch of a glandular fever or mononucleosis that left him out of some tournaments and affected his performance.
Last year the defending champion at Melbourne Park was Federer, but he was still ill with the mononucleosis and lost the semifinal against Djokovic. This year they could meet again in the semifinals and though there is still a long road before that, both of them are already in the fourth round of the tournament. Federer has played in great way against his opponents among which were two former champions, Carlos Moya in the second round and Marat Safin in the third. For the fourth round Federer will be facing Tomas Berdych and Djokovic will play Marcus Baghdatis.
As for Andy Murray, he does not have either an easy way up, because to get to the final he will have to face many hard contenders and will need to play harder and more focused in each of the matches.
One undeniable fact is that the first Grand Slam of the season is getting very interesting and whoever wins this year’s title will have to fight hard to achieve it. It is appointed to one of the Big Four, but we will have to wait and see if the bookmakers are right or not when the winner rises the cup this year at the Australian Open.
About the Author
Audrey Nolan is a top senior copy writer for the international tennis championships as well as the top ranking sportsbetting:www.instantactionsports.com/uk
Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety on your site, make sure to leave all links in place and do not modify any of the content.
Popularity: 2% [?]
You may also be interested in...
No related posts