Murray Must Remain Calm in Pursuit of Desert Sweep
Andy Murray is confident he can win his third gulf title of the year in the Dubai Open this week
Andy Murray believes he can achieve an equivalent of golf's Desert Swing this week. The Scot has the best win-loss record on the 2009 tour, having already won the Abu Dhabi invitation event and the Doha title, and starts as a rather well-positioned second seed in the Dubai Open today.
"Obviously the start of this year was perfect, and I'd like to try to keep the form going here because I had very good memories from last year. Hopefully, I can do a little bit better," Murray said, sounding a little contradictory.
What he means is that after a ripple-making win over Roger Federer in the first round and after enjoying the ambience and the opulence, he found a quarter-final defeat by Nikolay Davydenko last year a disappointment. This time he needs not to become distracted by unnecessary emotion in a first-round match against Sergiy Stakhovsky, a familar Ukrainian rival who once glared at him aggressively across the net during a Davis Cup tie in Odessa.
If Murray achieves that, he may earn a quarter-final with either with the elegantly brilliant Richard Gasquet or the tempestuously gifted Marat Safin, the former world No1 who is trying to make the most of his last season.
Murray may also have an advantage over his main rival, the top-seeded Novak Djokovic, who only flew in yesterday from Marseille and will have little more than a day to adapt and prepare.
That though will depend on the state of Murray's latest ankle injury – not the one for which he usually wears a support – which stopped him from competing in Marseille. "I had to make the decision so it didn't get any worse," he said. "I've been wearing an ankle brace to my right foot just to try and protect it. It's feeling better than a week ago but I still have to make sure I look after it."
Even if Murray goes all the way for the fourth time this year it is hard to imagine that the tournament could possibly finish with as much emotion as was provided by Venus Williams while winning her 40th tour title on Saturday.
The Wimbledon champion used her win to draw further attention to the absence of Shahar Peer, the Israeli who had been denied a visa, and made comparisons with the deep south in the USA. "I thought of Althea Gibson, who was excluded," Williams said, referring to the woman who overcame discrimination to become Wimbledon's first black champion in 1957.
"My dad grew up in a place where if you spoke too much it was your life. I've had a small opportunity here to say something where everyone will listen.
"I am not here to upset anyone. I'm here to try to do what's right, to represent what's right," Venus said. "Because of what Shahar went through, because everyone cared, the right things will happen next week on the men's tour." Which means that another Israeli, Andy Ram, will not suffer similar exclusion, and that he, Murray, Djokovic, and the other men will have the pleasure of just being able to focus on tennis.
"Obviously the start of this year was perfect, and I'd like to try to keep the form going here because I had very good memories from last year. Hopefully, I can do a little bit better," Murray said, sounding a little contradictory.
What he means is that after a ripple-making win over Roger Federer in the first round and after enjoying the ambience and the opulence, he found a quarter-final defeat by Nikolay Davydenko last year a disappointment. This time he needs not to become distracted by unnecessary emotion in a first-round match against Sergiy Stakhovsky, a familar Ukrainian rival who once glared at him aggressively across the net during a Davis Cup tie in Odessa.
If Murray achieves that, he may earn a quarter-final with either with the elegantly brilliant Richard Gasquet or the tempestuously gifted Marat Safin, the former world No1 who is trying to make the most of his last season.
Murray may also have an advantage over his main rival, the top-seeded Novak Djokovic, who only flew in yesterday from Marseille and will have little more than a day to adapt and prepare.
That though will depend on the state of Murray's latest ankle injury – not the one for which he usually wears a support – which stopped him from competing in Marseille. "I had to make the decision so it didn't get any worse," he said. "I've been wearing an ankle brace to my right foot just to try and protect it. It's feeling better than a week ago but I still have to make sure I look after it."
Even if Murray goes all the way for the fourth time this year it is hard to imagine that the tournament could possibly finish with as much emotion as was provided by Venus Williams while winning her 40th tour title on Saturday.
The Wimbledon champion used her win to draw further attention to the absence of Shahar Peer, the Israeli who had been denied a visa, and made comparisons with the deep south in the USA. "I thought of Althea Gibson, who was excluded," Williams said, referring to the woman who overcame discrimination to become Wimbledon's first black champion in 1957.
"My dad grew up in a place where if you spoke too much it was your life. I've had a small opportunity here to say something where everyone will listen.
"I am not here to upset anyone. I'm here to try to do what's right, to represent what's right," Venus said. "Because of what Shahar went through, because everyone cared, the right things will happen next week on the men's tour." Which means that another Israeli, Andy Ram, will not suffer similar exclusion, and that he, Murray, Djokovic, and the other men will have the pleasure of just being able to focus on tennis.
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