Murray clipped at semi's by Nadal, again

Another grand slam, and another postscript on Murray's hopes of winning a big one. Only a British player could have a year where he reached three grand slam semi-finals and one finals, and it gets labelled a disappointment.

More annoying than his four set loss to Rafael Nadal late on Saturday night was the constant stream of bogus analysis coming out of the sky sports commentary box. Murray's performances seem to engender over-analysis, not from print journalists, led by the Guardian's Kevin Mitchell, who keeps things blessedly simple. But broadcasters seem to go mad, diving into detailed discussion about the Scot's gameplan. They also seemed to think that Murray's encounter with John Isner, 24 hours earlier, had sapped his stamina as if his fitness has been in question for the past three years.

And then the lengthy expositions about his body language. Give it a rest, that is getting old.

Boil the defeat down to two things, Murray made too many errors and did not serve well enough. Meanwhile excellent service by Nadal nullified his usually excellent service returning. Perhaps Nadal realises that the trick with serving to Murray is to rely on placement rather than speed.

His revival in the third set was more down to a combination of luck and a Nadal blip than a shakeup in gameplan as those behind the microphones suggested. Perhaps the Spaniard threw him a pity set if there is such a thing.

Hopefully Murray will take the three loses to Nadal in three consecutive grand slam finals as a wakeup call. His tennis still needs work. He needs to learn how to shutdown his service games against the best. The problem with Murray when he plays Nadal is he never gets deep enough into a set before falling behind. Nadal is a genius and there is no easy way to beat him, but if you get to 6-6 you can fluke the odd tie-break.

In his seven grand slam matches against Nadal (record 2-5), only four sets have gone to tiebreaks, and Murray has won half of them, both in the matches that he won. In the months leading up to the Australian Open, only four and a bit months away, he needs to work on his second serve and beef up his first serve percentage.

Ah, screw it, I'm just going to watch the Murray-Gasquet match from 2008 and forget the last three years actually happened.

Djokovic's Steady Nerve Enough to Top Roger

Beating Roger Federer these days is much like beating Manchester United. Pull it off and you are bound to hit the headlines. Novak Djokovic triumphed against Roger Federer for the first time in a Grand Slam event since the 2008 Australian Open, the Serbs' last Slam Final, and his last Slam win. It may be auspicious for the world number three, or it may mean nothing, as he will have his work cut out against Rafael Nadal, who will be aiming to win his third Grand Slam of 2010, and become only the fourth player in the Open Era to win all four majors, joining Rod Laver, Andre Agassi and of course, Federer.

The match itself defied any master narrative, swinging seemingly decisively one way before shifting straight back. Indeed, when Federer set up two match points in the fifth set, it all looked familiar to regular tennis-watchers, before Djokovic played two gutsy points to get back to deuce.

Back at 5-5 and on Federer's serve, the Serb broke decisively, and then saved a break point of his own while serving for the match. The world number two then saw a succession of forehands sail long, handing Djojovic the fifth set 7-5.

In six previous seasons Federer has not failed to make two Grand Slam finals in a calender year, and prior to this year's French Open, had reached the past eight finals at all four majors, winning four of them, but losing three to Nadal. The match also ended his run of six US Open finals, including five titles before being beaten by Juan Martin Del Potro this time last year.

The match also ended a streak of three consecutive times that Federer had dumped Djokovic out of the US Open. In 2007 Federer beat the Serb in his first Grand Slam final appearance, then in 2008 and 2009 the Swiss triumphed in the Semi-Finals of both years.

For Djokovic the win salvaged something from an immensely frustrating season. Beaten by Tsonga in the Quarter Finals of the Australian Open in a re-match of the 2008 Final, he was then put out of the French by Jurgen Melzter, again in the Quarters, despite holding a two sets to love advantage in the match. Then he was outclassed by Tomas Berdych in the Wimbledon semi-finals, and another Semi-Final defeat to Federer at Flushing Meadows would have compounded the Serb's woes.

The first four sets were topsy-turvy encounters with the 16-time Grand Slam winner taking the first and third sets 7-5, with the Serb picking up the second and fourth 6-1 and 6-2, breaking Federer twice in both sets. Whatever is to blame for Federer's recent performances, at times he seems a shadow of his former self, and on the Arthur Ashe court, where he has so often excelled, he racked up more unforced errors than winners. Where he showed entire matches packed with flair and brilliance, his game flickered into life invarably, and only on the odd point did he display the sort of tennis that has dominated the sport for the past six years.

He would occasionally step in and strike the ball imperiously cross-court for a clear winner, but more often than not his opponent displayed far clearer aggression, hurrying Federer's forehand, and forcing him to either net, or shoot the ball long. The match might have headed away from the Serb after the fourth set, as the cat-and-mouse tennis suited the former world number one by far.

With far less hesitancy Djokovic stepped up the aggression in the fourth, and kept a steady nerve to triumph in a tight fifth set that could very easily have gone either way. The Serb's father, hard to miss with his son's visage emblazoned on his t-shirt, and those in the world number three's camp were sent into raptures by the win. Nadal provide a far sterner test today.

Murray deals with Lacko, Berdych out

The Brit had all his synapses firing, and playing at about 80% in challenging conditions, he defeated Slovak Lukas Lacko in straight sets. While he was toiling in the New York heat, Tomas Berdych, the man who defeated Murray at Roland Garros, and the next highest seed in his quarter, crashed out to Frenchman Michael Llodra.

It makes Murray's run to the semi finals easier, and he should have no problems with his second round opponent. Dustin Brown, a Jamaican player, is ranked 123. The winner will face either Stanislas Wawrinka or the Argentinian Juan Ignacio Chela, and then probably Sam Querrey or Nicolas Almagro in the fourth round.

American John Isner or Mikhael Youzhny could meet the Brit in the Quarter Finals, but the eye-catcher in that part of the draw, is a potential third round clash between Julien Benneteau and Michael Llodra, both Frenchmen, and current doubles partners. Both pulled off shocks to get to the second round, Llodra defeating seventh seed Berdych, Benneteau 29th seed Radek Stephanek.

Murray meanwhile played precise tennis, moving Lacko around the court with line to line groundstrokes, putting away anything in the mid-court, and generally mixing up his game. Every time the Slovak thought he had Murray measured, the Scot would show him a different shot, or mix it up with different spin. It was good enough to put away an opponent of Lacko's calibre, but it will be completely different if Murray faces Nadal or Federer. Yesterday's match was no real indicator of where his game is.

Men like Llodra, Querrey and Isner rely on their first serves, and Murray typically does better against those sort of opponents because he is such a good returner of the serve.

But against the top three in the world if you don't serve well you lose. If you don't put away mid court balls, you lose. If you don't hit the lines consistently, you lose. Toronto was a sighter for Murray, and will give him belief that he can beat both Nadal and Federer in the same tournament, but then that was a best of three set encounter. Five-setters are very different animals.

I worry about Murray in those situations, because his record in tie-breaks is not good. When he faced Andy Roddick for a place in the 2009 Wimbledon Final, what cost Murray was losing the last two sets in tie-breakers. Last year in Flushing Meadows he was dumped out in the fourth round by Marian Cilic. Hopefully the same will not happen this year.

For those who say the reason Murray has not won a Grand Slam because of the pressure heaped on him by the British media (English really) is utter nonsense. Can anyone point towards an instant where it was obvious he lost because of pressure. We've watched Tim Henman so long, we equate losing with too much pressure. Murray was outclassed in the two Grand Slam finals he has played against Federer. This year at Wimbledon, Nadal was in inspired form, while Berdych blew him away at Roland Garros. You talk about pressure, this is pressure. It is just an excuse built in by the English media to make some sense of national losses.

Murray is now a match for anyone on the tour, but first he needs to get to Friday, semi-final day.

Can you bet against this man? The answer is no

Roger Federer's most controversial statement this week seems to be the fact that he has grown tired with pink and will most probably sport blue in the coming US Open at Flushing Meadows, Queens- New York.

Federer, already on 16 grand slam titles, recently said he would like to reach 20, and would surely love to beat Nadal on the way to another French Open or Wimbledon title. Despite only winning his second title of the season last week at Cincinnati, the World Number Two can take heart, that the other victory was at the Australian Open. Heck Roger, why not shoot for Margeret Court's 24.

Just as Federer failed at overtaking Jimmy Conners and Pete Sampras to stand alone on six US Open titles in 2009, losing to the spirited Argentine, Juan Martin Del Potro, he succumbed to Berdych this year, aiming to equal Sampras' seven Wimbledon titles. This year he will have another chance, and there will be no Argentinian to scare the willies out of him.

He has not faced his foe Nadal since the final of the Madrid Open, the only time the two have met in 2010. If the two meet again at Flushing Meadows it will be in the final, and Federer, who has won five titles here, will feel the favourite.

Nadal has looked jaded, again, as he always seems to do when we reach this stage of the season, possibly a result of his athletic style of tennis, and the wear and tear on his body. Yet even Federer must wonder how his body will cope with a seven match two-week tournament. He visibly wilted against Robin Soderling in Paris, then looked out of it at times against Tomas Berdych at SW19.

Murray lost to Mardy Fish, but will probably not mind too much, considering the American did push Federer to the limit in the Cincinnati finals. The Brit looked angry throughout the encounter, and made a shoot at the tournament organisers after his previous round match, citing the fact that he had played early afternoon in each of his last six matches (including the ones in Toronto).

Wilting in the fierce Cincinnati weather, with the intensity of the sun matched only by Murray's temper, he asked the umpire whether he had seen a net court when he intimated that he had not heard one. When he replied that he hadn't, Murray added "You haven't seen much today have you," which the umpire might not have heard, but the television microphones certainly did. And in case you missed it, Murray has yet to win a Grand Slam, foiled twice in the finals by....Federer.

The Swiss has niggling injury concerns of his own:- was his five set thriller with Alejandro Falla in the first round at Wimbledon the cause or consequence of his back and leg injuries? How much of his thigh injury was responsible for his loss to Lleyton Hewitt in Halle before Wimbledon? When he is seriously pushed in the next two weeks, will his body, and consequently his game crumble?

In his quarter of the draw, are names such as Hewitt (possible third round opponent), Jurgen Meltzer and Juan Carlos Ferrera (fourth round), and a possible quarter final against Chilean Fernando Gonzalez, Croat Maran Cilic or Soderling.

Murray meanwhile will have Berdych, Stanislas Wawrinka, Sam Querrey and Nicholas Almaggro to worry about in his quarter, and will have to run the gauntlet in most of his matches to be in with a chance of ending one of the most extraordinary fallow runs in sporting history.

But for Federer, who won five titles in a row at Flushing Meadows before being beaten last year, will still go in clear favourite.