Andy Murray

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.
 

Andy Murray has insisted that he will represent Great Britain at the Olympics in Beijing this summer.

I’m definitely going to play at the Olympics, It’s something that not all athletes get the chance to do in their career. It’s an honour to represent your country and I’m looking forward to it. I’m just hoping I can get a good run this year and not have any problems with injury.

This years Olympic Games has been in the news for more reasons than sport recently, with many protests occurring over the hosts China’s human rights record. However, Andy was only focusing on tennis and the court challenges ahead.

For me, the Olympics is more about the sport, I’m just concentrating and looking forward to playing in the tennis. I’m not a politician.

The tennis competition at the Olympics is set to finish on 17 August, with the US Open scheduled to start on 27 August.

Murray will be joined by Roger Federer the world number and most dominant force in tennis over the last 4 year as he aims to add Olympic glory to his collection of titles.