Andy Murray: Mr. Consistently Inconsistent
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"Oh Ziggy, will you ever win?" - C. Montgomery Burns
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A little healthy arguing never hurt anyone, particularly sports fans. Thus, I must respectfully disagree with my fellow TennisNowian who claims that Andy Murray's latest early-round flame out is nothing to worry about.
 Murray is the oldest 24-year-old on earth. He started playing professionally in 2003 and peaked at No. 2 in the summer of 2009, when he spent three weeks there. He made that push with an impressive string of play that saw him win the Queen's Club, reach the Wimbledon semifinals, win the Rogers Cup and reach the semifinals at Cincinnati.
You could easily argue that he's never been better than in that six-week span, but you could also argue that he was No. 2 by default, as Rafael Nadal was injured and had fallen off the pace behind the still-dominant Roger Federer.
Murray is the fourth-best player in the world, I've got no problem saying that, but who cares who the fourth-best player in the world is?
Being No. 4 means you are expected to lose in every semifinal you play to No. 1, 2 or 3. And that's who Murray has been this year. He's 0-5 on the season against the three men ranked ahead of him, and hasn't won a single set in those five matches.
I know it sounds a little nonsensical, but Murray is consistenly inconsistent, which is why he remains in the Top 5, but can never get any higher than fourth - he's been ranked there or fifth for the past three years.
He's consistently good in the fact that he's good for a tournament win or two every year, a Grand Slam semifinal and maybe a final in a Masters 1000.
That success allows him to keep his points total at a consistent level year after year, ergo he's been ranked in the Top 10 every week since July 7, 2008.
But Murray's also a shoe-in for four to five mind-blowing losses a year, and those keep him from ever moving up higher in the rankings, no matter what he does in the big tournaments.
This week, it was South Africa's Kevin Anderson doing the honors, whipping Murray in straight sets in the second round of the Rogers Cup.
By recent comparative history, losing to the No. 35 ranked Anderson is barely a blip on the Murray scale of letdowns. He lost back-to-back matches to No. 143 Donald Young and No. 118 Alex Bogomolov at the Indian Wells and Miami this spring.
The good news is, he was just as bad at Miami a year ago, losing in the second round to then-No. 101 Mardy Fish, and following it up with a second-round loss at Monte Carlo - meaning he had few points to defend and this year's failures didn't make a difference to his ranking.
I don't know what's wrong with Murray. Is it killer instinct? It is lack of focus? Is it that there are just so many champion-level players and he's the "best of the rest?"
If Nadal lost to a player outside the Top 100, Mallorca would sink to the bottom of the ocean. If Novak Djokovic did, his Serbian Davis Cup teammates would shave his head again.
Heck, when Roger Federer almost lost to No. 34 Gilles Simon in the second round of the Australian Open to start this year, we did a breaking news story on it - but Federer pulled it out, something Murray just can't seem to do ... consistently.
What's on your mind? Post a comment below.
Posted by Nick on 8/11/2011 7:05:04 AM
Filed under: anderson, andy, djokovic, federer, fish, indian, masters, miami, murray, nadal, queen, rafael, wells, wimbledon
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