Guardian Unlimited Sport | Tennis | Murray is blown out in anger

Guardian Unlimited Sport | Tennis | Murray is blown out in anger--
It was surprising that Murray lost to Cilic in straight sets, but this story was exactly what I expected from the British press afterward.

And although I'm not really all that enamored of racquet-smashing as a response to frustration, it demonstrates to me how very different Murray is from many of the previous British players. Competing with emotion doesn't work for everybody, but there's only so much of your personality you can submerge on a tennis court. Murray has high standards and expectations of himself, at least as lofty, I suspect, as the British press has for him. There's bound to be disappointment when he doesn't meet them, and although Preston implies otherwise, there really isn't a preferred way to respond to the realization that you are not playing as you know you can.


I don't know whether Murray lost because he took his opponent lightly. That seems unlikely to me. I'm sure he thought he could beat Cilic if they both were playing their best, and I don't see the problem with him saying so. The mature adult in me knows that Murray would be better off talking in cliches, never saying anything that would allow his personality to surface. There is no price to pay for that. No stories like this one to endure. But I'm casting one vote for candor. May the no-spin zone always envelop Andy Murray.