Murray’s Fail in Olympic Bid

Wednesday, August 13th, 2008

beijing olympics 2008After 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!

Murray’s take on French Pair Clement and Llodra

Wednesday, August 13th, 2008

beijing olympics 2008Andy 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. 

Player A Murray/J Murray Clement/Llodra
Traditional Odds Decimal Odds Traditional Odds Decimal Odds
Betfair 39/100 2.02 49/20 1.9