MURRAY BEATEN BUT NOT BOWED; HE WILL COME BACK.

Oh Dear ! After all the hype (on the BBC, at least), Andy Murray has come second again, beaten by Novak Djokovic in the final of the Australian Open Tennis Championships.

 

This is not to say that Murray played poorly but he was certainly second-best. Having won the first set on a tie-break, he had a chance to break his opponent's service at the start of the second but failed to take it. After that, it was toe-to-toe slugging until a second tire-break levelled the match. The third set started off in a subdued way and it was pretty obvious that both players were taking a bit of rest. suddenly, Murray showed some frailty and Djokovic pounced; the Serb raised his game and quickly won the set before racing through the fourth to take the crown.

 

From early in the third set it was clear that Murray was a spent force though it took several more games and a lot of meaningless drivel before the BBC commentators seemed to realise. How John Lloyd and Andrew Castle have become so entrenched as commentators has to be one of the great mysteries of the modern sporting world; neither has anything useful to say and both have a range of quite ridiculous phrases which they trot out instead of talking English. 'Raised his level' and 'lovely change up', immediatley spring to mind though there many more. They seem alwasy to be slow in seeing the obvious and regularly come up with possible excuses as to why 'our boy' is losing, or suggestions that the opponent is beginning to struggle when nothing of the sort is happening.

 

A couple of days ago, Murray played his heart out to defeat the grestest player of the modern era, Roger Federer, over 5 gruelling sets. Today he simply ran out of steam. For 2 sets, it was nip-and-tuck between him and Djokovic and, in the continued absence of Rafael Nadal, these 2 must now be the top 2 players in the world. In the end, though, the easier semi-final and extra day of rest which Djokovic enjoyed may well have been crucial as his stamina lasted and Murray's didn't.

 

The French Open is always different and others may well come through to contest that final, but Wimbledon and the US open later in the year could easily have Djokivic and Murray slugging it out in the last match; my money'son Murray to win at least one of those tournaments and possibly both; he is now every bit as good as Djokovic, today he was simply not quite as fresh.