Last year’s Wimbledon champion Andy Murray has been knocked out of the tournament in the quarter-finals by in-form Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov. Murray&r
Last year’s Wimbledon champion Andy Murray has been knocked out of the tournament in the quarter-finals by in-form Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov. Murray’s performance was bleak—his shots weren’t holding together for him and he almost looked nervous of a player who has never reached the semi-finals of a grand-slam until now.
There have been a lot of questions surrounding Murray’s confidence in the run up to Wimbledon after hiring a new coach, being knocked out of the French Open by Rafael Nadal and then losing at Queen’s Club in the third round despite being the home favourite.
However during his first four round matches at Wimbledon, he looked like he was on top form whilst continuing a seventeen-match winning streak at the All England Club with straight sets victories against David Goffin, Blaz Rola, Roberto Bautista-Agut and Kevin Anderson.
What happened?
So, what went wrong against Dimitrov?
One thing that has plagued Andy Murray ever since coming to the ATP circuit is that he only has one crucial enemy, himself. In the day that separated his match against Kevin Anderson and this match against Dimitrov, it appears that Andy Murray has over-thought the situation and has lost sight of the player he can be when he believes he can win.
This match had a lot of similarities to his five-set win over Fernando Verdasco at last year’s championships but he managed to pull through his mental block and win on the other side—this just didn’t happen. He let Dimitrov get into his head and allowed himself to believe that he couldn’t do it. This isn’t a rare occurrence for Murray but the rapid-speed that he has declined in the past few days is rather odd to see.
As for Dimitrov, has been on form coming into Wimbledon after a sizzling display at Queen’s Club a few weeks ago. He displayed the belief that Murray didn’t today and he appeared to be firmly in control of his emotions in front of a Centre Court crowd that were trying their hardest to get Murray more fired up for this encounter.
A smooth ride (so far)
Unlike Murray, Dimitrov’s shots were a lot smoother, he had a lot more pace with his serve and his ability to construct the right shot for each situation he was faced with was exceptional and amongst some of the best that we have seen through Wimbledon so far. His reward for beating the reigning champion is a semi-final match against man-on-a-mission Novak Djokovic who is looking to end a grand-slam drought that has lasted nearly a year and a half.
Dimitrov’s run in to the semi-finals of Wimbledon has been quite a smooth ride except for a slight scare against Alexandr Dolgopolov in the third round. His approach of taking each match as it comes will be key if he is to get past Djokovic and progress to his first Grand-Slam final this coming Sunday.
The other semi-final will be Roger Federer, who had to come back from a set down to beat fellow Swiss Stanislav Wawrinka versus Milos Raonic.
What do you think? Who will win Wimbledon? Have your say in the comments section below.
