US Open 2012 Final Review: Andy Murray, The Grand Slam Champion

Just yesterday, Andy Murray became the first British winner of a Grand Slam in the open era; a very fine achievement in itself. But not only that, he did it in an epic five-setter against Novak Djokovic who has reached the finals in New York four times.

The matched lasted a massive four hours and fifty-four minutes and it had an incredible amount of ups and downs. Although the match has been hailed as one of the greatest Slam finals of all time, the quality of the tennis was not very high for the first four sets at all - the fifth was probably the set of highest standard. Some of this can be put down to the very tricky conditions throughout the whole match; the wind was treacherous. This led to a lot of errors from both men.

Having said this, the first set tiebreak was very entertaining. They both played nervously and were not aggressive, this made for a lot of long rallies. But what won Murray that breaker was his guts towards the end of it. Murray took the initiative in the last three or four points and took the attack to Djokovic. It paid off. Murray stormed to a massive 4-0 lead in the second and looked as if he was going to run away with it, playing very good aggressive stuff. But he took his foot off the gas and started to contain. Djokovic on the other hand worked himself into some good form and cut out his errors and went on a very good spell. But it was not to be, Murray gutsily took the set into his own hands and squeezed it 7-5.

Never ever count the Serb out. Now that Murray was very much in the ascendancy, he once again started to contain - the nerves must have been getting to him. You can't afford to do that against Novak. His mental reaction was awesome and he ate Murray up, levelling it up at two sets all. Both players went off for a toilet break.

The fifth set, crunch time. The momentum was fully with Djokovic but Murray broke him in the opening game and eventually went on to win it 6-2, as I'm sure you know. This set they were both aggressive, which made for a nice change.

A Very Impressive Murray

What the most impressive thing about this match was the mental responses of both men; when Djokovic went two sets down, and Murray's response when he squandered a two set lead. He came out playing incredibly courageous stuff in the fifth and served a dream. This is something I'm sure that Lendl has helped him out with. The Murray of last year would not have won that set in those circumstances, but Lendl has given him strength of character. Cometh the hour, cometh the man. And damn, did Murray come. His mental response at the start of the fifth was the KEY to his victory.

A slam for Murray had been a long time coming, but it was always going to come - even if it had not happened this year. Although players like Del Potro and Berdych have all the credentials to win Slams, Murray is on another level - he's a very complete player and way too good to never win a Slam. I'm sure he'll win a few more.

Monte Carlo Day 3: Order of Play + Popcorn Matches

• • You can find the order of play for tomorrow here.
  • Here are my thoughts on the popcorn matches of the day.
  • Andy Murray vs Viktor Troicki
  • Although this is not the most exciting fixture of the day, it is still a difficult first match on the clay for the Scot. It's always interesting to see how Murray fares against a player with the power that Troicki possesses - but this is clay court tennis now, power is not as overwhelming and as much of a weapon as it is on the other court surfaces. For this reason I think Troicki will find it difficult to keep the rallies short - especially against a mover like Murray. I think Murray will be victor (pun intended) in two reasonably comfortable sets.
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  • Kohlschreiber vs Tsonga
  • This is probably the most watchable match of the day as Kohlschreiber is accomplished on a clay court and Tsonga is a threat on all surfaces. What makes this match especially watchable is that both players are all court players which is nice to see as a lot of what we see is intense baseline rallying - especially on clay. I can see this match going either way but Tsonga is the safer bet as the German can be up and down in terms of his standard of play. I'm not going to be risky, I'll go with Tsonga to win this one in two, possibly three.
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  • Stanislas Wawrinka vs Feliciano Lopez
  • A similar case to the Kohlschreiber-Tsonga match in the sense that both players are all court players - although one could argue that Lopez is more accomplished at the net compared to the baseline. Lopez made the semifinals last week in Houston, only to lose in a very close match with John Isner, and so you could say Lopez is in-form. Whereas Wawrinka has been up and down this year - as he often is - but is a very accomplished clay court player and is more of a threat from the back of the court and so for this reason I don't think Lopez will pose much of a threat on Wawrinka's service games. The sets could be close due to Lopez's majestic serve - he may even manage to sneak a set - but I'd favour Wawrinka in this match.
  • Happy watching!