pabbers Sat Sep 03, 2011 8:10 pm
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW
Firstly - thank you to Jaydu and Guerkins for the heads up on the Sky red button - phew!! So I had to leave here to go off and watch.
Got up this morning and came here just to check I hadn't dreamt the win and I hadn't
Can't remember ever seeing Andy play so poorly as he did in the latter part of the first set and the whole of the second. Even when he's been beaten by much lower ranked players it's usually because the oppo has played lights out tennis. Not so on this occasion, as Peter Fleming (bless him) kept saying. He emphasised throughout that Andy was the class player and better than Haase and that Haases wasn't even playing particularly great tennis (apart from the odd shot here and there and especially at the end of the 5th).
BUT.........Andy got the win. Yes - over 5 sets, maybe not great in the early stages of a slam.........but not so bad either IMHO. Several positives to say about it.
1.Andy lost because he was playing badly and he knows the reason - movement - so he can improve. He doesn't usually have such problems with his movement (although I have noticed him bashing his feet in the last few tournies and I felt he wasn't happy with his body). So hopefully this was a one off and out of the way early against an oppo who couldn't get one over on him because of it.
2. The 5 set match wasn't that long in terms of stamina. Only 3.5 hours - you can get 3 set matches that long. Nothing like the Monfils v Ferrero marathon.
3. He realised in the 5th (as he said in the interview) that he needed to conserve energy between points and it was VERY noticeable that he didn't spend that time muttering to himself (unlike the second set).
4. He has reminded himself that he has the physical and mental toughness to win from way behind and that it's never over till it's over.
5. He's had a close call i.e. almost on his way home - that may just relax him a bit and allow him to play more freely because in a sense any match after this close call is a bonus rather than a barrier.
So GOOOOOOOOOOO ANDEEEEEEEEEEEE against Floppy!