Murray’s Queen’s disaster was best possible preparation!

Posted on July 3, 2012 by Andrew Younger

After an injury troubled French Open followed by a run of three defeats on grass, it’s fair to say Andy Murray’s preparation for Wimbledon was far from ideal. However, once he took to Centre Court to face Nikolay Davydenko in his first round match, there was no sign of the fears that followed him on to the court as he made little work of his Russian opponent.

Murray’s problems were well documented during Roland Garros, with the Scot having to take several pain killing injections just to take to the court following back problems. Given the severity of the struggle Murray was facing it was a slight surprise that he even entered Queen’s with little to no recovery time to regain full fitness.

It could be said that he needed the tournament to get his eye in on the grass or keep him match fit, but do these reasons trump the added recovery time he gained to prepare for Wimbledon? Coming off the back of a major Championship at Roland Garros, Murray has more than enough competitive games under his belt and is not likely to lose that competitive edge in the short period between the two Grand Slam’s.

Other top players including Nadal and Djokovic have claimed previously that they need more time to prepare for Wimbledon after the French Open so there is a clear problem in getting the preparation right in between the two tournaments. Doing that with a niggling injury would make that preparation nigh-on impossible.

Of course, there is an important transition between playing on clay and grass which may have been Murray’s determining factor to play through the pain, and to lose three games in the build up to Wimbledon might suggest that Murray didn’t quite have his eye in on the surface.

But this is Wimbledon, and at home, something extra seems to click for Murray which allows him to get the job done when in another competition he would fall away. He knows these courts and the surface better than most and despite his challenging draw in the competition, the form book goes out of the window when it comes to a tournament like this.

Even the three consecutive losses in the build up to Wimbledon were never going to be enough to put Murray off course to reach the second week at Wimbledon and after seeing off Marin Cilic to reach the last eight, it seems that his slightly prolonged time off the court in between the French Open and Wimbledon, coupled with the immense mental fortitude that he shows when it comes to Wimbledon could see him progress that little bit further this year.

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