What next for Murray after being brought down to earth by young pretender?

Murray ponders his crushing defeat in the Wimbledon Quarter finals.

British fans swarmed to Centre Court this past Wednesday in expectant mood at the chances of a repeat of Murray’s heroics of a year previous; In the quarter-final that took place, Andy Murray’ s Wimbledon title defence came to an end with a whimper. The joys of last year’s victory that were still being felt in each corner of Britain, were truly extinguished in what can only be described as a disaster of a performance against a talented youngster making his bow of the grandest of stages. Unfortunately Murray’s game this year was never in danger of coming even close to the heights reached in an exhilarating run last year. While those who tune in solely for the traditional two weeks of Wimbledon each year may have seen this as a huge shock, those who closely follow the game would concede that there has been an air of inevitability, laced with warning signs since Andy’s return from injury earlier this year.

There are a plethora of areas of his game that looked uneasily weaker than a year ago, none more than his mental state, comfort and belief in his own ability. In just a short year Murray seems to have lost the confidence that made him a deserving champion, when beating one of the all time greats and newly crowned champion Novak Djokovic to realise his dream. Not only did Murray look a shadow of the character that roared to victory, home crowd in tow 12 months ago; it was his distinct lack of confidence in his game and trust in his ability to attack that was most evident. Rather than impose his game upon the young pretender and number 11 seed Dimitrov, he let the confident emerging talent dominate from the back of the court, playing the game that best served him to deliver a crushing upset. Dimitrov out muscled Murray in all aspects of the game and and played like the player that had two Major titles to his name, rather than his opponent.

At a time that those players at the very height of the mens’ game have taken Andy’s lead and hired ex champions as new coaches to further home their skills, adding that crucial extra 5% to their game needed in order to stay at the top; Murray seems to have deteriorated badly since losing his distinguished coach Ivan Lendl. He seems to have already lost the confidence in his own ability to be one of the greatest players in the world, since his break up with Lendl early this year. Since reaching the elite level of the worlds top ten, Murray has always been a competitive player near the top of the rankings;   It was under the supervision of Lendl, that Murray really came into his own as a feared player on the tour who would challenge for top honours. Under his regime Murray’s mentality shifted to one of a champion, worrying not at the thought of nullifying the oppositions” strengths but finally imposing his own talents upon the opposition. After a combination of injuries and without his biggest ally in the coaches box, Murray has struggled all season when playing games at the very top level.

In terms of technique an area of his performance that was very much lacking was with his serve. In his exit Murray’s serving can best be described as average to poor with particular weakness of his second serve rightfully exposed by the fearless Bulgarian. If Murray is to beat any of the players at the top level in the modern game, he must have a service which is both solid and which wins him points at key moments in the pressure cooker of big games. With that said, it can be argued that just last week in the earlier rounds the serve was firing very well and was encouraging to say the least. Unfortunately this often has no bearing of how it  performs while under intense pressure against the elite. It’s all well and good to serve well when you know that you clearly enjoy a noticeable skill advantage over the opposition, and can therefore make up for weak serving with your all around game. The true test of a good serve is serving while under pressure, in those points that you need to serve well to relieve the pressure on your own game. This clearly was not the case in his quarter-final defeat and as a result Murray was helpless on Sunday relinquishing his crown from the comfort of his own sofa.

It is a fair observation that unfortunately Murray, with all the upheaval in the past 12 months, has reverted to the player that he was before winning a grand slam. A more defensive player eager to do just do enough to grind out victories by playing on the counter attack and counting on his athletic ability to wear opponents down. While still managing to win the majority of his games on tour, he will struggle to beat the top players with these tactics, and more so to win the major trophies. Until Murray is able to address this, rebalance his game and his psyche; he will struggle to climb back to the extreme heights that he once reached. Hopefully his new coach Amelie Mauresmo will be able to address this, although early signs seem negative. While Murray played very poorly by his own standards, Dimitrov was absolutely unbelievably good, and later pushed Djokovic all the way in their semi final match up. It is no surprise to those in the game that he is finally fulfilling the great potential which had him nicknamed little Federer as a junior; he has the game to challenge the best, though it has taken longer than expected for him to reach this level.

Dimitrov looks the pick of a new generation already snapping at the heels of the top players. He was dominant and powerful throughout, losing out to eventual champion Djokovic in a strong performance.

Dimitrov is part of a new crop of youngsters with Kyrgios and Raonic taking Wimbledon by storm this year with their fearless victories over great players, in addition there are such others as Tomic, Busta and Vesely to watch out for in the near future. Eventually this could be a changing of the guard in the game, as illustrated already by events taking place this week at Wimbledon. While it is too early to write of any of the Big four who have dominated the grand slams in recent times, particularly after a majestic final between Djokovic and a reinvigorated Federer on Sunday; it certainly promises to be an exciting few years with the new breed of superstars coming through creating perhaps a new era.

With every generation of new players comes a new added strength, height and hunger to be the very best the world has ever seen. While that this generation of players including Murray, Federer, Nadal and Djokovic has been absolutely unbelievable in terms of quality, the new crop are likely to be just as good. It will be fascinating to see how the great champions currently residing at the top of the rankings manage the new challenges that lie ahead, but one thing that is most evident from this week is that Murray has dropped back into the chasing pack. Fortunately for Murray he has shown in the past that he possesses the game to return to the top; unfortunately for him the players around him have all improved so a monumental challenge awaits. Murray has always been at his best as the battling underdog so it will be exciting to watch what he does next.