British star, Andy Murray, is the latest addition to the tennis world’s top 4 after his stunning performance at the US Open. The 21-year-old from Scotland just made it to his first ever Grand Slam final in New York, which he departed with a runner-up trophy. The young Scot has an undisputable talent, but is he there to stay and turn the rivalry at the top to a four-way, or does he still lack the consistency to be a constant threat to the world’s top 3?
Murray’s year so far has been a successful one to say the least. The first part of the season saw him win two titles on hard-court in Doha and Marseille, but the Scot had failed to achieve any Grand Slam success so early in the season as he fell to eventual finalist, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, in the Australian Open first round, despite grabbing a 6-0 set off the Frenchman.
Murray’s stocks were looking good when he ousted Roger Federer from the Dubai Open first round, only to crash out two rounds later to Nikolay Davydenko, and went on to have a disappointing run at the 2 Masters Series in the US.
Murray's clay season was average at best, where the eager youngster reached the French Open third round, falling to clay-court specialist, Nicolas Almagro in 4 sets. However it should be noted that clay is the Scot's least favorite surface.
The year started to shape up for the Brit on grass where he was carrying Britain's hopes on his shoulders at Wimbledon. Murray tried to work through the pressure and he pulled off a great comeback during an epic five-set win over 2007 semifinalist, Richard Gasquet, who was up 2 sets, but Murray then fell in the quarters to eventual champion, Rafael Nadal.
The season until then had not yet peaked for Murray, who flew to the North American hard-courts as the world number 9. Murray reached the semifinals at the Toronto Masters Series ousting world number 3, Novak Djokovic, before falling again to Nadal. He then had a major breakthrough at the Cincinnati Masters where he defeated Djokovic for the second time in 2 weeks to claim his first ever Masters Series shield and break into the world’s top 6 for the first time.
It was time for Beijing, but Murray 's Olympics campaign was halted at the very first hurdle as he fell to Yen-Hsun Lu of Taipei in the first round. The Scot however did not leave much room for the skeptics because he followed up his dismal performance in Beijing with a stellar one in New York.
After coming back from the brink of defeat at the US Open third round against Jurgen Melzer, Murray went on to display some stunning performances against world number 10, Stanislas Wawrinka (whom he ousted in straight sets), Juan Martin Del Potro (whom he fought out in 4 tight sets) and then went on to pull off the upset of his career by beating Nadal, the world number one, in a 2-day match that started on Louis Armstrong Stadium and ended the next day on Arthur Ashe. An upset like that, meant that Murray had just made it to his first ever Grand Slam final, where he was up against none other than the 4-time defending champion, Federer. Murray’s fire was out by the time he reached the final, and he miserably lost, but he walked away from the US Open with a career-high number 4 ranking and a $1 million check.
Looking in retrospect, what Murray managed to do this year is huge. He is one of a very small group of players who managed to beat the current world’s top 3 in the same season (Nadal in New York, Federer in Dubai, Djokovic in Cincinnati). Before winning his first Masters Series shield in Cincy, 3 of his attempts in achieving such a feat this year were halted either by Nadal (whom he lost to in Hamburg and Toronto) or Djokovic (whom he lost to in Monte Carlo). Ahead of the US Open, Murray had a 2-1 head-to-head record lead over Federer, something very uncommon among the active tennis players. He has a lethal backhand, a strong serve and now has a final Grand Slam appearance in his resume.
Before this year's season, many could argue that Murray couldn't deal with the pressure especially that coming from the British media. His results were inconsistent, his main achievements came in small tournaments and he had never made it past the fourth round at any Grand Slam prior to this year; which brought into question Murray's readiness for the big stage.
It seems that the one of the nagging issues surrounding Murray's progress is that the tennis critics were comparing his career to that of someone like Djokovic, whose rise to the top was rather quick. Murray's path to the top 5 was at a much slower pace but given his recent results at the Majors this year and the way he has been handling the pressure (with the exception of the US Open final against Federer), Murray looks like he's got a promising career ahead of him and that he has what it takes to stay in the top 5 and pose a threat to the likes of Nadal, Federer and Djokovic.
Next up on tour is the indoor season where Murray will appear at the Masters Cup in Shanghai for the very first time.
