After all the effort to make it Beijing, Andy Murray will leave with just one double’s win a two humbling defeats.

Sadly, Andy and Jamie were knocked out of doubles competition at the Beijing Olympics a thumping 1-6 3-6 loss to experienced French pair, Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra.

Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra are one of the few pairs who have played many times before, and with great success, but recent form in the last 6 months has not been great and hopes were high for the British pair that they could make it through this tough match.

The match was played out on court 4 of the Olympic tennis centre and few people will have seen the Murray’s make their exit.

Andy Murray has received much unwarranted criticism for his first round from some idiots in the media and we will no doubt see this increase in the next few days. His form has been rubbish since being here in Beijing, but he was here and to question his commitment to the Olympics or that his motivations is just money is simply ludicrous.

Murray pulled out of the Indianapolis tennis event 3 weeks ago to be better prepared for the Olympics. Indianapolisis part of 8 tournaments called the US Open Series that are played in the lead up to the US open. Each week Points are gained in each of these events and the winner at the end of the US Open takes home a Bonus from a $1million prize pool. Further to pulling out of Indianapolis, he has sacrificed playing in the US Open series events last week, this week and next week.

Prior to leaving for the Olympics Andy Murray was joint top of the leaderboard along side Rafael Nadal and so to question money has his motivations is just simply incorrect and and s fools point of view.

Though he did play absolute mince this week - long way short of his 6th in the world ranking. This however does not make him a bad person or only in it for money – It just means that he played mince this week!

Andy and Jamie Murray will continue their hunt for a Gold medal for Britain in the tennis doubles event in Beijing against French pairing Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra.

The match will be third on number 4 court, which starts play at 4pm (9am UK time), Beijing time, which means the Murray’s will likely take to court arround 8pm (1pm UK time). Court 4 is not one of the main courts and may not have TV coverage.

Clement and Llorda are the 2007 Wimbledon doubles champion, though Jamie has recorded a victory against the pair this year in Indian wells with his regular partner Max Mirnyi.

Andy Murray also has a great record against another French team in doubles he has beaten the French duo Richard Gasquet and Nicolas Mahut twice this year, first at Queens and just two weeks ago in the Rogers Cup.

Since their win at Wimbledon in 2007 the French team have had mixed form, they reached the final of the Australian open this year and since then have not been able to recapture the winning formula, in the last 5 events they have played together they have bean beaten in the first round. However the duo did managed to overcome the third best doubles team in the world, Israelis Erlich / Ram, who were amongst the favorites having been one of the few regular double teams.

It’s a little tough to get odds from all the bookmakers on this one as not all the sites are offering and if they are, they don’t always make it easy to find. Currently at Betafir the odds are slightly in favour of a French win, though only by the smallest of margins. 

The Olympics started with a washout on day for 1 Andy Murray and after day 2 Andy Murray was nearly heading home.

Murray kicked of his Olympic life with a disappointingly pathetic loss to Lu Yen-Hsun in his opening singles match 7-6 (7-5) 6-4. Pathetic may be being harsh, but the Scot lost the first set from a seemingly winning position, missing out in numerous set points before finally handing the set to his much lowered ranked opponent on a double fault.

The second set went much the same and Murray threw away yet another lead in the second after fighting into 4-2 lead.

Don’t read any match report and believe that Lu Yen-Hsun played well above his 77th ranking – Andy Murray lost this match rather than Yen-Hsun winning it. At the same time don’t believe the reports about Murray not trying as hard because this was Olympics – He played badly yes – When Roger Federer loses in the third round of Cincinati, do the press accuse Federer of not trying. No that is a uniquely British Journalist trait of tearing down our sports stars on a personal level after losing.

And Andy Murray would prove his commitment to the Olympics and redeem himself in the doubles with a really hard fought win with his brother Jamie.

The brothers took to the court late on Monday evening after a few hours rest for Andy. The dup got of to the worst possible start and dropped the first set and Andy Murray’s much hyped Olympics was going down the toilet.

Somehow though Jamie and Andy managed to pull things together and they recovered to win the second set, it was perhaps a lot more to do with poor serving of 277th ranked Niemeyer who simply could not hold his serve. This carried on into the final set and Jamie Murray found himself serving for the set, but the older of the Murray Brothers could not finish off the match and it needed yet another break of Niemeyer serve to clinch the win. After the match Andy Murray was content with his doubles win, 

I came here to win an Olympic medal and realistically I was only ever going to win one in either singles or doubles, I’d like success but if I had to pick one it would be to win with my brother. To win an Olympic medal with my brother would be something special. I don’t want to make excuses – Lu just played better than me. I had my chances and I didn’t take them.

Jamie Murray admitted that the shock defeat in the singles had affected them in their match, 

It was a tough situation and Andy losing in the singles was a bit of a shock for us. He was a bit flat and some of that translated to me. That happens sometimes, Andy came here with high hopes of doing well in the singles and I guess he needed a bit of encouragement. It was a tough day for him but we got through and that’s the main thing.

Daniel Nestor is the worlds number 1 doubles player, so this was no easy match for the British pair and coming through with a win after dropping the first set and the massive disappointment of the singles result for Andy only a few hours earlier speaks volume for the fighting desire of the Murray Brothers. 

The draw does not get any easier for the British Brothers, they will play either French pair Clement / Llorda or Israelies Erlich / Ram – The score in that match is currently 6-4 5-4 in favour of the French pair. Erlich and Ram are the third ranked team in the doubles world and Clement and Llorda are the current Wimbledon champions.

Andy Murray will begin his Olympic Games in singles competition after his doubles match with brother Jamie was postponed due to rain. The Scot is due to take on Yen-Hsun Lu from Taipei (referred to as Chinese Taipei during the Olympic games) tomorrow at 5pm local time (9am UK time).

The Scots first round opponent Yen-Hsun Lu has never played Andy Murray mainly because Lu has played most of his career on the challenger circuit. Lu results this year in challenger events have been quite impressive having won two events and a win loss record of 28 wins and only 8 losses, this form has seen him rise into the top 80 and allowed entry to more of the ATP main events, recording a 6 wins, 10 losses record on main ATP events.

Murray on paper should have no trouble making it to the second round and the bookmakers unsurprisingly make overwhelming favorite. The best odds as usual can be found at Betfair and they are still offering a free £25 bet.

Brothers Andy and Jamie Murray will meet Canadian team Daniel Nestor and Frederic Niemeyer in the first round of the Olympics doubles tennis. This will be a tough opener as Daniel Nestor is currently the world’s top doubles player, though most of his success has been with regular partner Serb Nenad Zimonjic, who will play with fellow Serb Novak Djokovic.

The brothers played together often as youngsters and teamed up in Canada two weeks ago in preparation for the Olympic games. They managed a good win against French pairing Richard Gasquet and Nicolas Mahut before losing to Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic, who went on to win the event.

Their first round match was due to take place on the 10th around 7pm local time (11am UK time), though rain has forced the match to be delayed and will now be played Monday 11th at approx 9pm local time (1pm UK time)

 How the seedings were calculated?

The seedings were established by taking the best ranking of either the players ATP Singles or ATP Double ranking andthen averaging these each team. For example Serb second seeds Novak Djokovic & Nenad Zimonjic have an average ranking of 3.5 after taking Djokovic’s ATP rank 3 for singles and Zimonjic’s ATP Rank 4 for Doubles. 

This method has thrown up a few surprise seedings, the Swiss team and 2 Spanish teams have no established doubles player, yet are seeded 4th, 5th and 6th respectively.

The overwhelming favorites the Bryan bothers are ranked number 1 and their toughest challenge could come from other regular team Jonathan Erlich & Andy Ram.

British team Andy Murray and Jamie Murray just miss out on an seed, falling in at 10th, with Andy’s 6th in singles and Jamie’s 29th in doubles and although their opponents has the worlds number 1 doubles player, that team is not seed because other player Niemeyer has a best rank of 277 in singles 

Andy Murray has been handed probably the most difficult draw possible for himself to win the Beijing Olympics title, If the Scot is to win Gold, he will have to beat all three of the worlds top 3 players providing they all successfully negotiate their earlier matches.

Of the top 4 players in the draw, Murray has the worst record against Rafael Nadal, having never won in 5 matches. Against Roger Federer he has won 2 of 3, against Novak Djokovic he has won the last two encounters after losing the first 4 and against 4th placed Nikolay Davydenko he has played 6 won 3. So Nadal was the one player that Murray wanted to avoid. Andy Murray’s record against the top 20

As these things usually goes Andy Murray was destined to be drawn not just in Nadal’s Half, but Nadal’s Quarter. This means that unless Nadal loses in one of first 3 round matches, Murray will need to overcome a 5-0 record to make the semi finals and gain a medal position.

To make things tougher Murray’s 3rd round oponent could be the highest possible ranked player of any of the top 8 seeds could meet and one of the players of the year so far 9th seed Stanislas Wawrinka.

To reach that far Murray will first need to negotiate Yen-Hsun Lu of Taipei and then he will face the winner of Agustin Calleri and Ivan Ljubicic.

After the Quarters the draw gets easy for Murray, Novak Djokovic could be waiting and the Roger Federer in the final, meaning Murray would have to potentially beat the worlds top 3 players in the space of 4 days to win the Olympics – If he does that, then every British Journalist whoever wrote overly negative stories about Murray should just retire.

Roger Federer though will need to face the demons of his recent past, Ivo Karlovic and Gilles Simon are potential third round and qaurter final oponents, both players have beaten Federer just last month.

Andy Murray moved up to 6th in the world rankings this week, in reality based on this year’s results he is top 5 stuff, probably top 4 behind the big 3 Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.

In fact I would argue that if you discount the clay court season he himself would make that top 3 slot and even be 2nd best in the world, on last two months form this is definitely the case, having only beaten by one player, Rafael Nadal, since the French Open.

And on hard courts, dare I say, may even be the best – If the court in Beijing plays as fast as it did in Cincinnati, then Murray will be in his Element, if it is slower then he may struggle a little more, especially on his serve.

Andy Murray may well be in the form of his life, but the bookmakers don’t share my view and he is still a long way behind the big 3 in their eyes. With Nadal as favourite at odds less than 3/1 and Federer and Djokovic not far behind, Murray’s odds of 11/1 at Betfair is easily my best bet. I’ll be backing Murray to win and I’ll also be backing Nadal not to win as I simply cannot see him winning next week.

Outside of those 4, you can get big odds on any other player and with the Olympics often throwing up strange results anyone may be a decent bet. Ivo Karlovic at 94/1 on Betfair is my outsider pick.

 
Many will say I’m mad to announce Murray as even close to the top 3, but let’s look at the facts, Federer has struggled all year and when Murray did play him, the Scot won comfortably. The loss was blamed on an “illness”, but that excuse wears a little thin when you consider more recent Federer results. Federer has as yet not won a major title this year and while he has been in the final of two grand slams (Wimbledon and Rolland Garros) and two masters finals (Monte Carlo, Hamburg – both clay court events) he has not managed a win. More importantly on hard courts his form has been lousy his best result this year is semi finals in Indian Wells back in March and that’s it. It would look as if too much effort went into winning the French Open and beat Nadal on Clay.

The other top 3 player that Murray could be considered ahead of at this moment is Novak Djokovic, having been owned by the Serb for their time on the ATP tour – Murray shattered those demons in the last two weeks beating Djokovic in straight sets twice. Since the end of clay court season Djokovic’s form has dipped, last week it picked up and he managed to record a famous victory against the soon to be world’s number 1, Rafael Nadal, ending his 32 game winning streak. That’s though until he met Murray

For me, the only player who can beat Murray on current form on a hard court is Rafael Nadal and the reason for that is more mental than tennis ability, fitness or current form. Having lost all 5 of their previous matches against the Spaniard, Murray has a difficult fight within himself to believe that he can beat Nadal. Nadal is without question the best in the world at the moment though I would go as far to say that Murray should beat Nadal on hard courts, especially faster ones, but the longer the losing run goes against Nadal, the harder it will get for the young Scot to win.

The draw for the Beijing Olympics will determine much, just as it did in Cincinnati, If Murray is drawn in Nadal’s half and they meet in the quarter’s or semi’s, then Murray will hit a major road block and need to do something he has never done before beat the Spaniard. If they are in opposite halves, I don’t think Nadal will reach the final, on hard courts any of the top 50 can beat Nadal, that’s if they believe they can win.