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Apr/16

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Who is Andy accusing?

Andy_Murray_Finals[1]Andy Murray has fired the latest round of ‘PEDs are prevalent in tennis’ accusations: Andy told the Mail On Sunday: “I have played against players and thought, ‘They won’t go away’ or ‘They don’t seem to be getting tired’. Have I ever been suspicious of someone? Yeah. You hear things.”

“It’s harder to tell in our sport as people can make big improvements to a stroke or start serving better because they have made technical changes.”

“If it’s purely physical and you’re watching someone playing six-hour matches over and over and showing no signs of being tired, you’d look at that.” Ouch!

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121 comments

  • Scoop Malinowski · April 18, 2016 at 9:29 am

    Six hour matches – can’t recall who played a six hour match besides mcenroe and wilander in davis cup – but i guess he means five hour matches too (what’s an extra hour?) – djokovic played five hours vs kukushkin this year in davis cup and of course rafa and verdasco played five hours at the aus open a few years back – boris becker responded a bit angrily at andy: “”We have random drug-testing and unless it’s proven, they are 100 percent innocent. So to assume something because somebody has won a Grand Slam or is fitter is totally out of order.Andy is one of the fittest players on the tour — he often outlasts players and nobody is questioning his ethics. I believe 100 percent Andy is clean. Roger [Federer] is clean, Rafa is clean, all these guys are clean. Novak gets tested a lot. That can mean twice in a Grand Slam.”

  • catherine bell · April 18, 2016 at 9:55 am

    I agree with Becker.
    So far Maria S is the only top player who’s been caught taking any kind of PED so until there’s more evidence I think a period of silence on this issue would be a good idea.:)

  • Scoop Malinowski · April 18, 2016 at 10:21 am

    Catherine: It is interesting that Andy didn’t take a shot at Sharapova isn’t it? She is the one who was caught but Andy is pointing a finger at unknown suspects –

  • Harold · April 18, 2016 at 10:35 am

    Must be great to throw vague accusations out there with no proof, or any proof you are going to supply, and it’s a 5 minute story.

    Where is the folow up question to Murray?

    Dan, dont bring up Murray brothers, until people deal with the Williams sisters. One is 6’2 and skinny, the other 5’8 138( according to WTA) give or take 60 lbs. the other 2 sisters are 5’4 250. Quite the spread. Genes might not be the rule. Andy has more talent and maybe better work ethic.

  • catherine bell · April 18, 2016 at 11:08 am

    Harold –

    Yep – and I wouldn’t believe three consecutive words from the Mail on Sunday.

    Was also going to point out to Dan that siblings don’t always resemble each other – Williams good example there.
    Not sure what Dan was suggesting – that Andy dopes and Jamie doesn’t ?

    An end to accusations and speculations – please.

  • Moskova Moskova · April 18, 2016 at 11:50 am

    yes, the top players on PEDs is mostly speculation from our perspective however in the locker rooms and to real insiders – there must be an unspoken truth / proof.

    IMO – no player is above suspicion and the smart money points to rampant PED abuse among the elites on tour. however it’s tough proving with all the cover ups and collusion; so ultimately, this topic should be on the backburner until we nail one again 😉

  • Scoop Malinowski · April 18, 2016 at 12:31 pm

    There is no way Andy would make these allegations if he had ever used a PED- or it’s very hard to believe that he would – Yes Andy’s body has changed because early in his pro career he was known as physically slight and weak in tough physical matches – I actually recall commenting at the old Tennis Week forum how Andy just needed to train like a physical beast and do tons of weights and pullups etc because the talent and court sense/skills were there just not the physicality – then he actually did become a physical beast and his body and court physicality changed considerably – I do believe Andy did it the clean way and it can be done the honest way – male bodies can change a lot from late teens to 20s if you train hard and eat the right proteins and nutrition – I recall getting into weight training in college and adhering to proper nutrition and my body appearance and strength changed a lot – So I do believe Andy is and always was clean – the question I have is why didn’t Jamie follow Andy’s training regimen when he saw how his brother’s career benefited from it?

  • catherine bell · April 18, 2016 at 12:53 pm

    Scoop-

    I suspect that, early on, Jamie realised he didn’t have Andy’s sheer talent, so although he became a pretty good player and more than that in doubles, it’s possible his outlook was different and his commitment to a ferocious training regime just not quite there.

    But again, just ‘speculation’. 🙂

  • Andrew Miller · April 18, 2016 at 1:09 pm

    Andy’s jealous Sharpie has a meldo nickname. His PR team, led by Mike Russell, probably already had a few to try out on Andy.

    MurrayMeldoniuMania

    Andy Meldo-Murray

  • Scoop Malinowski · April 18, 2016 at 1:23 pm

    Catherine: Actually Jamie was also a very good teenager but I remember Andy saying something years ago about Jamie have a couple of key years during his developmental stage being a big reason for his growth stunt as a player – can’t recall if Andy blamed the LTA or the move to Spain – but I do recall Andy saying there were a couple of years around age 14/15 when Jamie lost a lot of ground and was mishandled – do you know anything about this? Still it’s incredible that Jamie did overcome failures and hardships (like a couple of years ago he was struggling losing first rounds in Challenger dubs) and is now the no 1 doubles player in the world – incredible story – and Judy murray deserves equal credit as Richard williams as a super coach –

  • Scoop Malinowski · April 18, 2016 at 1:24 pm

    Ok pipe down there Andrew – 🙂

  • Moskova Moskova · April 18, 2016 at 1:34 pm

    go Andrew go !

    btw, down goes…the following touted players of TP in Sarasota :

    down goes rubin, harry, donaldson, paul, tiafoe (rd2)

    haha

  • Andrew Miller · April 18, 2016 at 1:53 pm

    Catherine I’d second that. We should probably applaud Jamie Murray for recognizing reality like the Bryan brothers in the States: seeing he wasn’t heading to the top tier in singles, decides to make a name in dubs; profits big time. Not sure what Jamie’s take is himself, but his decision was a shrewd and bankable one. As far as I can tell the Murrays enjoy the tussle with the press and skewering the LTA for not doing its job and creating a stable of credible pros. I can’t recall a month not passing without a Murray saying something alone the lines of the LTA sucks, the future of British tennis is bleak, and support my moms vision to change tennis in this country.

    If not, a Murray takes over the LTA and gets a huge salary.

    We’ve seen this before.

    As far as the drug accusations, I have no idea. My guess would be that Murray says to himself he’s training so much yet doesn’t have a recent slam and has lost to Djokovic too much for his own liking.

    Well, that pretty much sums up how other players see the big four over the last twelve years of leaving few crumbs for anyone.

    As much as I’d want to say well Murray knows what he’s talking about, I don’t think there’s evidence of that from his statement. He runs the risk of looking like a sore loser if he doesn’t have much to go on. As it is Murray has had as good a year as anyone not named Djokovic.

    So unless it is Murray feeling sorry for himself I don’t get it.

  • Andrew Miller · April 18, 2016 at 1:57 pm

    And how many brothers have been a force in singles? The Mcenroes had a serviceable second wheel in Patrick. The Sanchez brothers from Spain. The Zverevs. Usually you have one great player and an understudy. The Pliskovas. Even the Harrisons. It’s a stable pattern.

    I’d say there are only a few exceptions. The Williams girls. The Maleevas with almost three top ten players from Bulgaria no less.

  • Andrew Miller · April 18, 2016 at 2:01 pm

    Andy Murray became huge. All these guys are exactly how Agassi predicted the future of tennis would look like, all beasts. But as the sport has become a battle of attrition, it’s true ) in theory meldoniun would be a staple of a lot if players regimes. Or unhealthy quantities of gatorade.

  • Bryan · April 18, 2016 at 2:12 pm

    Andy should name guys rather than making these cryptic statements. Otherwise we’re left to only speculate he’s talking about Nadal and Ferrer (my main suspects).

    One point he makes which I strongly agree with is terminating these ‘silent bans.’ Cilic was outed belatedly, and there’s still talk that Nadal sat out a 6 month silent ban a few years ago.

  • Krzysztof · April 18, 2016 at 5:01 pm

    How long was Australian Open 2012 final? Djokovic and his hyperbaric chambers are suspicious too. When biological passports were applied, suddenly players like Djokovic or Ferrer started to suffer physically as well.

  • Scoop Malinowski · April 18, 2016 at 7:34 pm

    Andrew: Don’t forget Lapentti brothers – melzer brothers – Granollers bros – Blake bros – also Djokovic has two bros with ATP points too –

  • Andrew Miller · April 18, 2016 at 8:09 pm

    Haha Scoop, Djokovics brothers can’t be considered credible pros! Everyone else is decent. I think once Djoko made it the family sat back and said big bro will take care of us. It is a huge family.

  • Scoop Malinowski · April 18, 2016 at 8:53 pm

    Not quite Andrew – both younger bros tried grinding it out in futures and challengers and got some WCs into main draws doubles but they weren’t able to rise out of the obscurity which is anything below 250 in the world –

  • Harold · April 18, 2016 at 9:33 pm

    Amazing how many of the younger brothers never have as great a career as their older brother.
    Zverev might be the only one who is better than his older brother.

  • Harold · April 18, 2016 at 9:34 pm

    Dont consider Thomas Blake a pro player. World Team Tennis and WC into New Haven does not make you a pro imo.

  • catherine bell · April 19, 2016 at 3:29 am

    Scoop –

    No, I don’t have any info on Jamie’s problems as a teenager – it’s getting to be a while ago now.

    Could have been just part of growing up of course, plus move to Spain, possible family issues – but it’s a good bet Andy would blame the LTA whatever the case 🙂

  • Scoop Malinowski · April 19, 2016 at 8:13 am

    Brian Baker bakerizes T Paul 63 61 – Donaldson donalds Harrison 62 76 in Savannah – Another devastating loss for Harrison who just can’t buy a win – This is a huge win for Baker his first of the year and to beat a rising young force like Paul bodes well for Baker though the wildcards won’t last forever – Congrats to Novak Djokovic for winning the Laureus Sportsman of the Year Award again –

  • Stephen Warren · April 19, 2016 at 8:48 am

    I realise we’re on to siblings now, but back to the whinging Andy comments. It’s got to be aimed squarely at Novak. The Australian open was a marathon-fest for a while there a few years back. In 2012 Andy loses semi in 5 to Novak and the following day Novak wins a 5 hrs 53 Min brawl (that’s your quoted 6 hr match) against Nadal. Not taking a position on who’s cheating, but Novak has got to be Andy’s intended target (hence boom boom’s spirited defence). Add in the 2015 AO final when Novak had that leg wobble issue in the 4th but recovered (again, I’m not taking sides as Andy is the biggest ” I’ve-lost-two points-in-a-row-I-better grimace-overtly” player I’ve ever seen). Andy has a Novak complex. It’s understandable, but I reckon his big losses have more to do with his own shortcomings (lack of: down the line forehand, second serve, and courage on big points) rather than Novak’s, admittedly extraordinary. physical prowess.

  • Scoop Malinowski · April 19, 2016 at 9:40 am

    Stephen Warren: No doubt Djokovic was the intended target as Becker was the first to reply/defend – no word by the Rafa gang at all – It will be interesting to see if Andy persists on this issue – and if he has any substantive info/evidence to share later –

  • Scoop Malinowski · April 19, 2016 at 9:44 am

    Harold: Younger brothers often do out succeed big bro in tennis – Andy Roddick is the younger brother of ex top US junior John – Chang’s older brother Carl is a very good player I was told but didn’t cut it at the pro level – Patrick Rafter was a younger brother too as was Gustavo Kuerten – and you are also forgetting that Andy is younger than Jamie –

  • Scoop Malinowski · April 19, 2016 at 9:45 am

    Harold: T Blake has a career win over David Ferrer – does that qualify T Blake as a pro player? HELL YEAH –

  • Andrew Miller · April 19, 2016 at 11:16 am

    Murray’s doping statement cast a wide net. The five hour comments were definitely directed at Djokovic. Sadly that is all sour grapes from moping Murray.

    Bottom line here – once Lendl dropped Murray, and then when Lendl’s 2nd in command, Dani Vallverdu, dropped Murray for Berdych, Murray hasn’t shown the same chops. In the Lendl-Vallverdu period, he entered every contest as the equal to every big four member for much of his tenure with Lendl and won 3 of the sports 5 most important contests: Olympic Gold medal (2012), US Open (2012), Wimbledon (2013). Following his surgery etc, his team was gutted and then he brought in Mauresmo to a weaker team, with Mauresmo then leaving for a period.

    Mauresmo’s a fine coach, clearly. She just can’t provide all of what Lendl and Vallverdu did. If she had Vallverdu, it would probably be a different story and Moping Murray wouldn’t be such sour grapes.

    Always suspicious of players who aren’t playing optimally who throw out digs like that at players ahead of them.

    It’s the equivalent of the kid who goes to his parents and says, “that kid over there…he’s winning everything. It’s not fair!!!”

    Again, to Murray’s credit, he made some pretty standard statements on the drug regime. Nothing note worthy. But then going after the Djokovic with nothing but “wow, he beats me every time these days!” isn’t the basis of a substantiated claim.

    “He, yeah, that guy over there….it’s not fair. He’s winning everything!”

    Or he could have just won Monte Carlo.

  • Harold · April 19, 2016 at 12:00 pm

    Was Ferrer 12 or 13?

    I meant younger brothers of pros, Agassi had a brother too, only thing he did better was dealing with baldness

  • Scoop Malinowski · April 19, 2016 at 12:09 pm

    How do we know for sure Andy wasn’t fingering Rafa? Even though Becker curiously was the first to rush to defend his boss perhaps it was the intention of Andy to cast suspicions as Rafa who we all know has just won a pretty big title – I find it curious that everyone thinks Andy is targeting Djokovic and not Rafa –

  • Scoop Malinowski · April 19, 2016 at 12:11 pm

    No Harold – T Blake beat Ferrer as a pro – I did a Biofile once with T Blake and he revealed this surprising result –

  • Scoop Malinowski · April 19, 2016 at 12:14 pm

  • catherine bell · April 19, 2016 at 1:02 pm

    Andrew –

    People keep banging on about Lendl and how he could control Murray’s emotions etc (implication – Mauresmo can’t) but people also forget that Djokovic is a better all round player now than he was 3/4 years ago (and not drug assisted 🙂 )and Murray has also moved to a different place mentally and in years. He may be past his peak. He’s also had other distractions and could take a while to find a balance.
    We’ll see.

  • Scoop Malinowski · April 19, 2016 at 1:36 pm

    I consider it miraculous that Andy won the two majors and OLY gold that he did – in this era it’s just about impossible to do what Andy did with Fed Rafa and Djokovic to overcome – Ever since Lendl departed there’s been a slight difference in Andy – It seems Lendl sensed that Andy wasn’t going to win any more big titles and moved on because he had done his job –

  • Andrew Miller · April 19, 2016 at 2:21 pm

    Catherine, Lendl says Vallverdu, now with Berdych, was the key. To me Murray is playing well this year but lacks the hard edge that he was playing with three years back. I’m sure he wants one more slam, the Australian probably for redemption alone.

    To me it is all sour grapes. Fact is Murray isn’t playing at the same level of Djokovic nor has he added new dimensions to his game. He’s playing very well taking into consideration his injuries and I’d add, well, fatherhood.

    Again to me I think there is a big one in Djokovic and then there is everyone else. Maybe two of them make slam semifinals from here on out including Wawrinka. That may include a few more big performances from Murray. I think Murray has a decent shot of adding to his slam trophy case before his career is out. Not like Agassi and his reawakening, but he could add to his two slams.

  • Andrew Miller · April 19, 2016 at 2:24 pm

    Lendl is a strange case. But whatever. I think when Lendl and Vallverdu left his slam salad days left too. It was incredible he won in that stretch, it is almost an anomaly. He broke up the narrative. DJOKOVIC would have won those slams.

  • catherine bell · April 19, 2016 at 2:35 pm

    Scop (and others)
    I think you’re right. Andy won Wimbledon and that was a terrific achievement and Lendl helped him there but my guess is he won’t win it again – no matter,his name’s on the trophy.

    My guess also,on another topic, that Serena might win W’don, Olympic gold, but she won’t come near GS.

  • Dan Markowitz · April 19, 2016 at 2:46 pm

    The younger bros of pro playing brothers are usually the better, I think. I know you’ve got Djoko and Emilio Sanchez and Johnny Mac and Jurgen Melzer, but younger bros like Ollie Rochus, James Blake, Andy Roddick (I know John wasn’t a pro) and Michael Chang all stick out, and of course Andy Murray.

    Interesting interview at SI.com with Alexandra Stevenson, who’s 35 and ranked no. 545. Her goal is to get back into the top 50 and she’s currently playing Futures event in Alabama. I like Stevenson, but I can’t believe that she still thinks she can make a credible comeback. She’s as old as Venus and even though her shoulder has recovered, I don’t buy the idea that if you were athletically inactive for 8 years it means that you’re really 27 instead of 35. Because even if you were athletically superfit at 35, the tediousness and car traveling and lousy motel-staying you have to do to make it in tennis if you don’t have big sponsors or wildcards is something only teenagers for the most part can or want to do.

    If Stevenson were able ever to qualify into a slam, I’d be stunned but amazingly impressed.

  • Moskova Moskova · April 19, 2016 at 4:34 pm

    Stevens is deluded….but what else is she gona do ? teach ? lol 😉

    fed and serena are giving people hope which could be a good thing.

  • Scoop Malinowski · April 19, 2016 at 4:56 pm

    I think Lendl is being EXTREmely generous to say Valverdu was the key – I mean that’s almost the most preposterous thing ever said in pro tennis – Valverdu (with all due respect) didn’t do anything as a pro player so what did he really bring to the table to Andy? And what has he brought to Berdych? I don’t see any upgrade in Berdych at all – Lendl is a modest guy to give credit to Valverdu – Lendl made Andy go from very good to great and when Lendl jumped ship Andy went back back to very good –

  • Scoop Malinowski · April 19, 2016 at 4:59 pm

    Dan: Kimiko Date Krumm and Victor Estrella proved that any player at any age can still get big results – odds are against Stevenson and it looks impossible but crazier things have happened – BTW didn’t tennis-prose break the news months ago that Alexandra was still out there grinding? (Yes we did)

  • Dan Markowitz · April 19, 2016 at 6:22 pm

    Here’s where playing tennis on the pro tour, chasing the dream, seems like its stunted a talented person’s life/career. Stevenson said she wanted to go to Yale Drama School when she was 25, but she didn’t because she kept on playing tennis. I can’t even remember the last time I saw her play a match. It was probably back in 2000. This is a person who probably should’ve gone ahead with her life and did something bigger than rehab her shoulder and play minor league pro tennis tournaments.

    I started teaching tennis because I liked it and I wanted to have a job I could do when I wrote…a novel and a lot of personal essays and then free-lance for newspapers/magazines and a few sports books. But it’s not for everyone, but to hear Stevenson talk about not getting sponsorship money and not getting any help from the USTA, it’s like, why should they help you? I mean if someone wants to take a flyer on you that’s great, but it doesn’t look like a real good investment when you’ve been playing for a number of years and you’re no. 545.

  • Dan Markowitz · April 20, 2016 at 8:33 am

    Wow, Tiafoe is really coming on. He beats Smee in Savannah 4 and 2 and will play Frantangelo in the third round if they both win their second round matches. I think Tiafoe and Fritz are the real deal. The rest maybe not so…except for Mmoh, maybe.

  • Scoop Malinowski · April 20, 2016 at 12:39 pm

    Dan: Kozlov just won another Futures saving six match points in the final – Kozlov is winning a lot of matches – Rubin just lost a 76 76er to Young so we can infer that Rubin is playing top 50 tennis now and he will only get better with exp – Tiafoe has now twice routined Smyczek in straight sets in the last four weeks – Fritz has actually struggled since losing to Tiafoe in Indian Wells –

  • Andrew Miller · April 20, 2016 at 12:56 pm

    The U.S. “19 and under” group is great. Best generation since the French (Monfils, Tsonga, Gasquet, Simon, etc) and Spanish Armada (Nadal, Robredo, Verdasco, FLopez, even Bautista, etc). Best U.S. generation since the late 80s, early 90s.

  • Andrew Miller · April 20, 2016 at 1:04 pm

    Speculating, I think it will be interesting how Sock, others respond to these new U.S. kids. Tomic got his act (more) together with the rise of Kyrgios and Kokki – and he even says it in his press conferences that he’s aware of this.

    Pete Bodo made a good point at Tennis.com a few years back, saying to the effect that players read about themselves in the press all the time. So in Australia, guys like Tomic, Kyrgios get mighty press coverage and compete all over the place. It’s more important to be #1 in your country than #1 in the world – so the higher Kyrgios pushes the higher Tomic feels he has to.

    That same effect dominates with the young U.S. players. It’s what propelled the 80s-90s break-out group.

    I’d even argue that for the U.S. players right now, that’s what made them reach a higher level than where they were. Guys like Johnson were competing hard at the challenger level against U.S. players week in and week out. Brad Klahn struck first, getting the top 70 ranking. Then Sock, Johnson leap-frogged him and DY got his game together as well.

    Peer pressure, competition – for press coverage, heck – for everything. You play each other in practice, in matches, notice that one player is taking off and say, that’s going to be me.

  • jg · April 20, 2016 at 1:33 pm

    I watched some of the second set of Tiafoe’s match last night, and he looked possessed, he usually spaces out during parts of the match but he was focused throughout, he totally dominated like IF Smee was playing a top 10 player, Tiafoe was wearing an Asics shirt, Nike shorts and adidas shoes–have to wonder if he was extra focused to get a good sponsorship deal?

  • Andrew Miller · April 20, 2016 at 2:58 pm

    Andy ought to speak on betting. Seems like it us way out of hand and there’s no wada around. Just read the AP story of this Pitner guy. Officiating and betting on matches. Nice conflict of interest.

  • Harold · April 21, 2016 at 9:01 am

    Baker and Harrison won a doubles match in Savanah. Wimbledon predictions go through the roof at TP

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