Andy Murray is beaten 6-4 7-6 by Milos Raonic in quarter-finals of Barcelona Open. I thought Ivan Lendl was supposed to make him a better player?
Difference between Murray and Raonic today was Raonic's confidence in going for his shots combined with his powerful flat forehand and rocket serve.
I know your comment was meant in jest but I fear if Andy doesn't take a slam this year then it will be too late. Winning the smaller tournaments such as this one now should be bread & butter for Andy and he should be reaching the semi finals of the 4 slams AT THE VERY LEAST. As ST has already said where is the Lendl factor? If anything his form has dipped since the Aussie Open. The 1/4's in Barcelona is just not good enough!
How can you say that winning this tournament should be easy for Andy Murray? He would have played David Ferrer in the semi (who he's never beaten on clay) and then Rafa in the Final. Having watched the final yesterday, Ferrer should have at least taken it to a third set, but Rafa raised his level, and had a little bit of luck with a couple of shots. Murray's ability on clay would not have been good enough to beat either of the finalists.
Hi Mark, welcome to the forum, it's good to have you on board. Lively debate is the name of the game so we need more like you here to question comments from others. I don't necessarily think the smaller tournaments shoud be "easy" for Murray but if he is to win a slam then he should be able to beat players such as Ferrer (no disrespect to him) in the smaller tournaments at which Andy has done well in previous years. The surface shouldn't make any difference to top players - although they will always have their prefered surface on which they perform better than others.
If he gets there he will always have a chance. He's not in the greatest of form but he's been better this year and I'm taking that as a positive.
