Andy Murray Bounced Out of BNP Paribas By Big Boomer Raonic

Written by: Bob Larson Tennis on 13th March 2014

Andy Murray Bounced Out of BNP Paribas By Big Boomer Raonic

epa04122250 Andy Murray of Great Britain hits a return against Milos Raonic of Canada at the BNP Paribas Open tennis in Indian Wells, California, USA, 12 March 2014. EPA/JOHN G. MABANGLO |

Andy Murray insists he is struggling to reclaim his Wimbledon winning touch after returning to the ATP World Tour from back surgery but insists the absence of coach Ivan Lendl from all but one of his tournaments this year has nothing to do with his travails.

Lendl, this week on senior duty with the PowerShares Series, will be back at Murray’s side next week for the beginning of the Scot’s defence of the Sony Open title in Miami. But this year he has missed the defeats in Doha, Rotterdam, Acapulco and most recently Indian Wells that we all inflicted by lower ranked players.

Murray was less than pleased with his form at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells that saw him struggle past Lukas Rosol and Jiri Vesely before losing to the big hitting of Milos Raonic and he said he was low on confidence and concerned about his form after dropping his serve twice in the deciding set. “I didn’t make enough balls, missed easy shots—but like really easy shots,” said the 26 year-old.

“There were some where he [Raonic] was standing in the net, and I just had to hit it to the other side. Confidence appears the problem because there is no other reason for missing shots like that. Basic tennis shots that I would hope to make 99 times out of 100.”

Murray will clearly spend a lot of time analyzing his performance with travelling coach Dani Vallverdu before linking up with Lendl in Florida early next week and he said: “I’ll need to have a think about it and have a look at what happened.

“There wasn’t a huge explanation for it, because the shots I was missing…it wasn’t like one shot in particular. That’s concerning for me. The rest of the matches I have played since I have come back haven’t been particularly concerned about them.”

Statistics certainly back up the belief Murray plays far better with Lendl in attendance than if the coach who guided the Scot to two Grand Slam titles is absent. Since the pair first linked up at the beginning of 2012, Murray has won 83% of his matches with Lendl in attendance but only 69% with the coach absent.

However Murray left Indian Wells with the insistence: “I don’t think having Ivan here would have helped me play better. I made the final here before and I have played well at tournaments when Ivan hasn’t been around.

“The way I played against Vesely, I just didn’t have any rhythm on the court and I was missing balls. That isn’t down to anyone that’s sitting in the stands, that’s just down to me not executing the shots properly.”

Topics: 10sballs, Andy Murray, Atp World Tour, BNP Paribas Open, Indian Wells, Ivan Lendl, Jiri Vesely, Lukas Rosol, milos raonic, Sports, Tennis, Tennis News

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10sBalls_com says:

March 13, 2014 at 7:43 am

Andy Murray Bounced Out of BNP Paribas By Big Boomer Raonic – http://t.co/990dDoe6SV @andy_murray @BNPPARIBASOPEN @milosraonic #IndianWells