ATP - Roger Federer v Andy Murray

31 January 2010

Preview By Tipster Jumbo (New Zealand)

Federer vs Murray aye, Sounds good, on form looks good, Lets have a look……..

Roger the Dodger sure looks good right now doesn’t he? Davedenko was good but not good enough, Tsonga was no match for him, Once again he is peaking at the right time, so lets see his progress throughout this Tournament…6 matches to get here with 4 being won in straight sets,Only once has he been taken to a Tie Break and that was in his opening match with Andreev in the 3d set to force a 4th which he easily won, In his 4 3 Set wins his game totals were 25,29,27 and in his two 4 Set Matches the totals were 37 in the opening round and 35 against Davedenko,, You have to say that Federer has looked brilliant over the last 2 Rounds and will be hard to stop, It’s funny you know but Ever since Nadal beat him here last year and whenever Nadal has stayed in the Tournament that Federer has looked shaky and in the Tournaments that Nadal has been gone early with out facing him Federer just go’s to a whole new level.

The Great British Hope in Murray who again should be lose this match will firmly be back to being Scottish again has to played some outstanding Tennis to get here, His Match against Nadal was outstanding Tennis and his final 2 Sets against Cilic were also brilliant so lets see how he’s come through….Murray has played 19 Sets to get here and has only been taken to 4 Once in his last match against Cilic, He has played 2 Ties breaks in those 19 Sets winning either against Nadal and Isner, Match totals and Murray in the first 5 matches had Game totals of 22,26,29,30 and the Nadal match was stopped so no need to mention that, and his one 4 set match was 37 games in total, At time Murray has looked fantastic especially in the later stages of his matches when he was already on top, his record against Federer is excellent but he has only played one Grand Slam match against Federer and it ended quickly with Federer being a Class above.

H2H and these two have played 10 times with Murray winning 6 to Federer’s 4, On hard court they have played 5 times with Murray again holding the edge 5 games to 3, In the 10 matches these two have played 6 of them have gone to an extra set and they have played 27 Sets with Federer winning 14 and Murray 13, they have played 4 Tie Breaks with either player winning 2 each and one last interesting note is that these two players have met in a Final only twice in their 10 meetings with Federer winning either in Straight Sets.

Federer is playing great and if this was Nadal he was up against I might be tempted to go against him as Nadal has beaten him when he has been in such form but the fact is that Federer is playing far to good right now and even though Murray has shown Glimpses of Brilliance his first serve is a hug worry. Murrays first serve is getting worse and worse and his second serve is good but likely not good enough, Unless he can fix his first serve in this match then he has little chances to do much about the result, Federer on the other hand is hardly dropping a single point in his service games and so that for me is a major point of difference between these two players, Murray needs to fix that part of his game and he hasn’t looked like fixing that all Tournament long, Greta return of service and great court coverage has helped him to this point but I don’t know how much that will help him today.

I think Murray is a great player and that he has shown that but I really don’t know how he will go against Federer, if this is to go over 3 sets than Muray will have to win the first but in their only GS meeting it turned out to be a real mis match and in their last 4 matches at least one set has been decided by 8 games or less, I would love Murray to go well here and make a real match of this and keep us entertained but I am not to sure about that at all and instead of looking to make a profit off of this match I’d rather sit back and enjoy it and so I’m looking for 3-0 or 3-1 for Federer and for the Match total to stay under 40.5…..Good Luck.