Murray chasing his slice of history

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The final tournament of the 2008 Masters Series is well under way in Paris this week. For those unfamiliar with the series, it consists of nine tournaments played in North America and Europe throughout the calendar year, which are mandatory for the top male players. They are the most sought after titles on offer behind the four Slams.

Introduced in 1990, one record is amazingly yet to be set. No player has ever won three in a row. That’s 161 tournaments without three in a row cropping up once. Not Pete Sampras, nor Andre Agassi, nor Roger Federer, nor Raphael Nadal has managed the feat despite accumulating 54 titles between the four of them.

One man has the chance to make history this week. He won the Cincinnati Masters in August then the Madrid Masters earlier this month. On a hard court in Paris the US Open finalist is a serious contender to pull off a remarkable third. He is of course, Andy Murray.

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In 2005 Murray broke into the top 100. However his progress in the past couple of years has been somewhat intermittent. In 2006 he beat Roger Federer (only Nadal matched this feat all year), but suffered with back problems and cramps due to underdeveloped bone growth. In 2007 he showed signs of greatness but missed a lot of action with a wrist injury and suffered from general strength and conditioning issues.

Last winter he split with his head Brad Gilbert and replaced him with a ‘team of coaches’. It wouldn’t be an understatement to suggest that he needed a specialist fitness coach, specialist technical coach, specialist psychologist, specialist nutritionist, specialist physiotherapist, specialist public relations officer etc if he had any hopes of reaching the heights of Federer and Nadal.

In fairness, they seem to have done the trick. Murray is becoming a force to be reckoned with. He won his first match yesterday with confidence, strength and maturity. I think Nadal is still to prove himself on hard courts. I think Federer may have one eye on the Masters Cup in Shanghai in November. I think Murray has the chance to achieve a hat-trick that has eluded so many great players.

Another serious winter of hard training and improving that weak second serve will give Murray a real shot at the Slams next year. Men’s tennis will then have a top four to more than rival Man Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal.

What odds for Djokovic winning the Aussie Open, Nadal winning the French Open, Federer winning Wimbledon and Murray winning the US Open?

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