| 16 May 2011
If you have been following the progress of Andy Murray this year, you will know it has been a mixed bag for the British No.1.
Tennis betting pundits note how he started well with a strong performance at the Australian Open, making it to the final before losing to the unstoppable Novak Djokovic.
This defeat hit him hard though and following a bit of a break, he returned to tennis only to lose three tournaments in a row in the first round. It was a slump of epic proportions considering the standards he has set himself in recent years.
Murray remained calm though and following a couple of niggling injuries, he seems to have found some better form. In fact, the man himself has declared that his slump in form is officially over.
Speaking after crashing out of the Rome Masters semi-final, he said: “The crisis I was in, supposedly, is over. I feel I'm playing great tennis again. I was on a bad run, mentally I wasn't in the best place, but my tennis is never going to go away.”
Strong words after a defeat, but the man he lost to in Rome was Djokovic and there is no shame in that at the moment. The Serbian is unbeaten so far in 2011 and went on to defeat Rafael Nadal in the final yesterday. That’s now twice he has beaten the Spaniard on clay this year.
Anyway, back to Murray. He is in positive mood ahead of the French Open later this month, no doubt about that. He actually isn’t at all convinced he was in a ‘crisis’ and was keen to point out that he has been one of the top tennis players around for a while now.
The Scotsman continued: “I can compete with those guys, I need to play that well and better if I want to win the French Open, and I need to get fitter over the next days.”
“This definitely gives me confidence. Your tennis never goes away, I've been in the top four players in the world for four or five years now. I will definitely be at the top again.”
Those looking at tennis betting tips will tell you how these are very encouraging words from Murray and he is right to back his own ability. Yes, he had a poor run of three or four matches, but the fact remains that he is one of the best tennis players in the world.
Perhaps he isn’t quite at the level of Djokovic and Nadal at the moment, but he can compete with them and if he improves his fitness and well as keeping this positive mentality, he might be beating them in a major tournament before long.
