Second set: Murray 7-6, 2-1 Gasquet* Murray holds to 15, with a couple of aces along the way. The momentum has definitely shifted his way since the tie break, but he needs to capitalise on it with a break. "The late, great comedian Mitch Hedberg joked that he could never play tennis, since he knew he could never be as good as a wall," notes David Van Howe. "So your assertion regarding the umbrella-holders could also apply to their beneficiaries." That's a fair point.
Second set: Murray* 7-6, 1-1 Gasquet A successful challenge from Murray earns a rightful point for his steering the ball between net post and umpire's chair for a winner, after being forced well wide – and it helps Murray to earn his first break point. He gets a good passing chance, but his string breaks, the ball loops miles wide and the chance is gone.
Second set: Murray 7-6, 1-0 Gasquet* Is there a less glamorous job than being a player's changeover umbrella-holder? Sure, there's points there for proximity to famous people, and in a big game like this you'll almost certainly have your face on the telly, but you're just blocking out the sun. You might as well be a wall. In fact, you'd be better at the job if you were a wall. And what does that realisation do to a young person's self-esteem? To the tennis, then, and though a double fault and then a wild forehand suggest Murray's focus might be wavering, there then follows two excellent winners and an ace and Murray holds. Telling (but not really decisive as it turned out) first-set first-serve percentages: Murray 57%; Gasquet 80%.
Murray wins the first set 7-6! This is really tactical stuff, and Murray has the crowd on their feet, or at least clapping quite a bit (this is Wimbledon, after all) by following a string of sliced crosscourt backhands with a powered winner dow n the line, a 22-stroke rally that put him two mini-breaks up. He duly wraps up the set, 7-3 in the tie break. "Here's a theory for which I have absolutely no solid evidence - nor do I intend to provide an example of when it's happened before," writes David Horn, unencouragingly. "But, I reckon that in a Grand Slam during the latter stages of a set against decent opponents, whom Murray considers more of an equal, if he doesn't break in the first couple of receiving games, he plays for the tie break. His tie-break record is pretty good and I think he saves his running around for that when he doesn't think he's going to break."
First set: Murray 6-6 Gasquet A sense of impending doom grips the audience as Murray twice pulls out of his service action before the game gets under way, and though the Scot does win the game he doesn't look particularly good in doing so, and he lands few first serves. Gasquet has a strange habit of standing fou r yards (or more) behind the baseline for many of Murray's second serves, which is widely regarded as being the biggest chink in his armour. Then every now and then he'll hit one from a yard inside the baseline. Puzzling. What he'll do every time he can, though, is rip beautiful backhands down the line. Anyway, tiebreakarama.
First set: Murray* 5-6 Gasquet Another easy hold for Gasquet, who – though Murray helps by providing him with the ammunition – produces a few great shots, the highlight being another stunning down-the-line backhand winner. "I like the cut of Gasquet's jib," notes David Savage. "Not only does he wear a proper (collared) tennis shirt, he hits proper (one-handed) backhands too. If only he had a double-barrelled surname, he'd be a certainty for the title."
First set: Murray 5-5 Gasquet* Now Gasquet wastes a challenge – the players have lost all of their three appeals so fa r. Other than man v hawk-eye, which isn't going so well, this is on a knife-edge.
First set: Murray* 4-5 Gasquet A weirdly easy service game, held to love – with Murray barely offering a shot to give away the final point.
First set: Murray 4-4 Gasquet* Murray's first-serve percentage in his first three service games was a very underwhelming 60% – Gasquet's average over his first four service games was 77%. But that was better from Murray – slower serves, but greater accuracy.
First set: Murray* 3-4 Gasquet Having twice decided not to challenge (wrongly), Murray finally has a go (also wrongly). It looks set to be another very standard service game as Gasquet goes 40-0 up, but one brilliant return and a fluffed volley later (er, and another point), it's deuce. This allows Gasquet to produce a brilliant drop-half-volley on his way to winning the game any way.
First set: Murray 3-3 Gasquet* Three big serves win the game; Gasquet lands three returns and wins two of those points. There have been a lot of attempted lobs already today, I'm noticing. Something to do with attempting to bewilder your opponent by forcing them to confront the presence of a sun, I'm guessing. Not something they had to deal with very often in week one.
First set: Murray* 2-3 Gasquet Gasquet has a go at attacking the net – several goes, to be fair. This allows Murray to unleash one great passing shot, but then the Frenchman stays back and creams a brilliant backhand down the line. And Gary Naylor, with some inevitability, wins the competition to produce a "blowing Gasquet" pun that doesn't seem smutty and crude. "So McEnroe, who often blew a gasket at Wimbledon, is advising Murray on how to blow away a Gasquet at Wimbledon," he writes. "Quite an important preposition in that sentence, I feel."
First set: Murray 2-2 Gasquet* Gasquet wins the first point after Murray's first serve was called long – incorrectly, and again unappealed. A sense of gentle sparring pervades, at least until game point when Gasquet attacks a forehand for the first time. A fine shot, but then Murray serves an ace and wins the game anyway.
First set: Murray* 1-2 Gasquet Murray's having some calibration issues with his radar, the upshot being that Gasquet holds to love in a game that revealed little about anything, but did give the line judges a fairly remorseless work-out.
First set: Murray 1-1 Gasquet* McEnroe is making a big deal about the importance of not counterpunching, despite that being both players' natural game. Though you'd have thought that if a tactic is good enough to take a player to No4 in the world it would probably be good enough to take h im past the No13. Anyway, Murray's problem here isn't so much counterpunching it's where he's counterpunching the ball – into the net, quite often, and straight at a French bloke the rest of the time. He's not helped by an incorrect and unappealed call at 15-15, and before long he's facing his first break point. It's saved, though, and the game duly won with a lovely trademark drop shot.
First set: Murray* 0-1 Gasquet Murray wins the first point but that's where the good times end, and three unforced errors hand Gasquet the game.
The players are warmed up. Gasquet to serve.
There are genuine royals in the royal box! I'm talking about the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, or Prince William and Mrs William as they're otherwise known.
Preamble Welcome, then, to Andy Murray's latest step on his route to world domination. Today's straightforward conquest is Richard Gasquet, the French No17 seed, whom Murray has soundly thrashed every time they'v ... hang on ... he's only gone and lost the last two.
So who is Richard Gasquet, then? He's 25, his hero is Zinedine Zidane. He tested positive for Cocaine in 2009 but successfully blamed it on a waitress he kissed in Miami. He doesn't have dandruff. And he's a decent outside bet to win Wimbledon if our Andy doesn't (though it might be worth holding off your trip to the bookies for a couple of hours).
They've met at Wimbledon once before, in 2008, when Murray fought back from two sets and a break down to win, improbably, 5-7, 3-6, 7-6, 6-2, 6-4, in what Murray calls " the best moment I've ever had on a tennis court". More drama like that, please. Only slightly less dramatic.
Article Source KBG Test Blog (http://rc.kbg.me)
