Andy Murray’s game has never been well suited to clay.  The closest the game has to a finesse player, Murray generally doesn’t like going on the offensive.  Those who watched clay matches from the 1980s will naturally assume the game is still slow play from the baseline, but it is really about finding good opportunities to go for a winner.  The biggest difference on clay is often the need to hit several “winners” to win a point.   The slowness of the court favors topspinners that can keep the ball in play, but even a player like Soderling, who hits relatively flat, can have a chance.

Murray’s clay prospects were made worse when his game took a bit of a dive after the Australian Open.  He skipped Marseille.  He chose not to defend Rotterdam.  He then went to Dubai because of criticism of skipping Marseille.  In Dubai, he lost a lackluster match to Janko Tipsarevic.  In Indian Wells, he played all right, but lost to Robin Soderling.  Things got worse in Miami when he lost to Mardy Fish in the 2nd round.

As the tour turned to clay, Murray decided to take a wildcard to Monte Carlo.  There, he lost to Philipp Kohlschreiber who hammered him so badly, it made Murray look positively helpless.  Murray was spinning shots high hoping to elicit errors, but unable to take the game to his German opponent.  He headed to Barcelona to train, where co-coach, Alex Corretja helped arrange a series of partners for him to practice against.

Murray went to Rome and won his first match over Andreas Seppi before he took on red-hot David Ferrer.  Ferrer shows why he is one of the more annoying players on tour.  With his speed and power, he runs down shots that you think you’ve won, and you are forced to hit more and more shots just to say in the rally.  Indeed, when Murray lost to Ferrer (6-3, 6-4), he immediately had his press people say he was playing well, far better than Monte Carlo.  Perhaps to prove Murray’s point, Ferrer made it to the finals where he, like most players, lost to Nadal.

Murray chose to take the week off after Rome to train, happy with his success.  And that lead him to Madrid.  Juan Ignacio Chela used to be ranked a lot higher in the past, but has recently started to play better.  He won a small clay event in Houston where he beat Sam Querrey in the finals.

On the positive end, Murray did not have too much trouble with Chela.  He’s been hitting his shots harder, willing to work long on crosscourt backhand exchanges, and his movement seems to be back to normal.  In particular, he’ll be happy that his return is working a lot better.  In the second set, he fell a break early on, but broke back immediately, and then broke a second time.  At 5-2 up, Murray nearly made a third break to win 6-2, but Chela was able to pull out the game, and Murray comfortably served to win.

On the negative end, Murray’s first serve percentage continues to be dismal.  Again, his numbers are around 40%.  The only positive aspect is that he wins nearly all points he gets on first serves.  Ever since he beefed up his first serve, getting a high number of first serves has been a challenge.

Earlier in the day, Rafael Nadal took on Alex Dolgopolov Jr.  There have been several “Juniors” on the tour, most notably, John McEnroe, but few put it in their official names.  Apparently, Dolgopolov is one of them.  Looking a bit like one of the Hanson brothers with his long hair tied back in a ponytail, Dolgopov made Nadal work.   For any player ranked below about 20 in the world, the best way to beat Nadal is to attack him.

Dolgopolov used an interesting strategy of hitting high loopy forehands to the Nadal backhand, and if he put the ball up the middle and short, he would hit an inside out shot to the Nadal forehand, usually for the winner.  Players have seen this “hit to the backhand, wait for the ball up the middle, and pound it inside out” strategy from many players including Davydenko, Federer, del Potro, and Murray.  Dolgopolov also used a slice forehand to bail him out of tight situations.

Dolgopolov was down a break early in the first set, but never quite got to breaking Nadal.  Nadal seemed irritated that his opponent was making him work.  In the second set, early on, Nadal was made to work very hard to hold serve, with Dolgopolov threatening to break.  Well, by that, I mean that he kept getting Nadal to deuce, but had trouble getting to an ad point.  By the end of the second set, Dolgopolov was struggling to keep the ball in play.  When you play a high risk strategy like that against Nadal, there’s a chance you make more and more errors.

Other results.  Almagro wins a close one over Soderling, 6-4, 7-5 in a match of heavy hitters.  Lucky loser, Mardy Fish, who beat fellow American and lucky loser, Michael Russell, lost in the 2nd round to Jurgen Melzer after being up a set.  Wawrinka won over Mayer of Argentina after Mayer retired in the 2nd set.

Up next in the third round: Federer plays Wawrinka, in the battle of the Swiss.  Gulbis plays Lopez.  Murray plays Hanescu.  Cilic takes on the winner of Ferrer-Baghdatis being played now.  Verdasco takes on Melzer.  Almagro plays Monaco.  Monfils awaits the winner of Tsonga-Garcia-Lopez.  Isner takes on Nadal.