Wimbledon 2012

At page 1 of this thread you copied JD and said that Nadal going out was the 'death knell' and he would go out in the quarters. This irrational approach is not based in pragmatism or reality.

At page 2 you compared him to 'toothless Tim', said he was a nearly man and that you would eat your cat if he made the final. Again, not pragmatism, just needlessly talking the guy down.

At page 3 when he was down 1 set to love, you grinned at the fact you thought he would get knocked out. Again, not pragmatism, just delighting in what you prematurely thought was his failure.

At page 3 you said he had no chance of reaching the final. This is not prgmatism, again it's talking him down.

At page 4 you copied JD again and claimed his lack of extra gears was his 'problem'. You did at least seem to begin to accept it was even possible he would get to the final.

'Over inflated expectations'? I've not heard anyone say they expect him to make the final, let alone win the title. Enormous hope and support, yes. Expectation, no. And have you not heard Tim Henman saying it is actually quite easy to ignore and block out what the papers are saying? And Murray seems far better able to handle the pressure than Henman.

Despite wanting to argue with me, you've obviously not bothered reading any of my posts in this thread then? I'm glad you now think it's possible he may get to the final, but no I think Djokovic (probably) or Federer would be too good for him. I've never said he's guaranteed to get to the final either, but he is good enough to do so and he is mentally tough enough to do so.

If he fails in either the semis or the final I will be massively disappointed, but I will not be saying 'I told you so' like you are clealy planning to.

Do let me know when I post something that gets your approval.

Anyway- some great doubles tonight.(and I'm not referring to previous exchanges.)

Yep, decent match with Fleming and Robson. Nice to see Marray through to the semis, tho not caught any of his games yet. Not sure if they're still in, but I'd like to see some of the doubles with Navratilova and Novotna, Navratilova is still a fantastic doubles player.

This is an interesting question. And it's not like it's new with Lendl, people have been saying (and I'm sure Murray has been thinking) for years that he needs to come forward and be more aggressive. I put it down to two things - (i) when he's nervous (such as at the beginning of the match) he reverts to type, and his natural game is slower than he needs, (ii) he takes some time to get a feel for the conditions and start to be able to play with a bit more power.

In the fourth set was about the best I've seen him for controlled power and agression (perhaps on a par with Australian Open v Djokovic?) but even then when he missed narrowly, he got down on himself. It's like he knows he has the ability to make shots that most others can't and when he doesn't has a go at himself. Compare this with Federer who mishits and shanks far more shots than the others in the top 4, yet remains impassive. If Murray could accept this aggressive game raises his percentages but does entail some missing, maybe he'll crack it.

As a positive, I thought his aggression when break point down was excellent, served strong and didn't take a step back. I'm still not convinced his game is good enough to beat the top 3 in a final, but he certainly has room to improve and give himself more of a chance. 

I think one of the issues with Murray  is his inability to flex a game plan. Against Ferrer, it was obvious the tactics were to slug it out from the baseline and try to play on Ferrers weaknesses.Murray was desperate on occasions to get up to the net following up deep slices but he kept withdrawing and ended up struggling to return.When he started to go forward ,he rushed his shots and sliced into the net which made him withdraw back to the game plan.It will be completely different against Tsonga as they will both play serve and volley if the conditions allow and they are both equally as good so it will be close.

There were too many reticent shots against Ferrer - aggressive is too strong a word but he needs to be more self -assured in his strokeplay against Tsonga like he was at Queens last year.

Should he get past Tsonga,he still has a good chance of making his mark.It's not in his favour, but that's a good thing imo.

Come on then.

EAT THE CAT!!

On youtube by tomorrow. Proper cat (no fake cats).

PP, has the cat done a runner yet!!

Takeaway for Mr Penguin!

I am EDITED a hoop by the way. He'll lose to Federer if they both play the way they did today, but it's a step forward. Was it Lendl who lost four grand slam finals before winning eight?

Sharpening the knife as we speak. Sweet and sour puss 

Okay I was wrong. I'm big enough to admit I was WRONG!