In the feature match on Saturday, Andy Murray played Bernard Tomic in the second round.

For Andy Murray, this event has given him trouble in the past.  Indeed, following both his defeat in 2010 to Roger Federer, Murray went in a funk.  While a quaterfinal loss to Robin Sodering in Indian Wells wasn’t exactly horrible, he expected to play better.  Then, in Miami, he lost early to Mardy Fish.  While that might be a respectable loss now, at the time, Mardy Fish had yet to climb up the ranks, though that win (and several others) may have lead Fish to regain confidence to rise to the top ten.

In 2011, Murray lost to Djokovic in the finals of the Australian Open.  He was feeling down after that loss, and had even worse results.  He lost to Donald Young in Indian Wells, and to Alex Bogomolov in Miami.  Both players would go on to have their best year on tour after that win which goes to show a “good” win, even if a player is playing less than his best, can produce confidence.

2012 was better for Murray.  He lost to Djokovic in the semis in the Australian Open.  However, that was his first year with Lendl, and both felt that his loss in 2012 was not that bad, given how awesome Djokovic had been the previous year.  Murray was able to reach the finals of Miami, but lost to Djokovic once again, though the two would play each other tough, and Murray would ultimately get the win he cared about: the US Open.

This year, Murray also lost to Djokovic in the Australian Open finals, but he did, at least, win a set.  Murray’s loss pretty much coincided with a blister in the third set, that hampered his movement, while Djokovic’s confidence surged.  Murray couldn’t find a way to deal with the pain, and so pretty much hung in there as best he could.

Again, after this loss, Murray said he played well, reached another final, and made a decent showing for himself.

Murray also said that 2013 would be the first year that he would, once again, focus on Masters 1000 events.  It’s not that Murray hasn’t ever focused on these events, just under the Slams, but every since about 2010, when Murray was considered a strong contender to win Slams, Murray began focusing more and more on Slams.  While he still won his share of Masters 1000 titles, by 2012, he was rethinking his strategy.

2012 was the first year Murray didn’t win a single Masters 1000 title.  Typically, Murray wins 2 a year, almost always on hard courts, usually in Canada and in Shanghai.  However, he did win Olympic gold on home soil and he did win the US Open.

With that monkey off his back, Murray wanted to focus on Masters 1000 events in 2013.  He took an extended break off after the Australian Open skipping Rotterdam and Dubai, two events he has played historically.  He returned back at Indian Wells.

Of course, with any time off, you come back a little rusty, and Murray didn’t seem terribly sharp.  He would face an on-form Juan Martin del Potro in the quarterfinals and lose to the tall Argentine.  As it turns out, del Potro would go on to beat Djokovic and push Nadal to the brink before losing in 3 sets to Rafael Nadal.

Bernard Tomic had a great start to 2012, last year, and managed to overcome Fernando Verdasco in 5 sets to reach the fourth round where he lost to Roger Federer.  It was thought that 2012 would be a breakout year for Tomic, but the early success seems to have gotten to Tomic’s head.  Tomic ran into a few scuffles at home including his predilection to fast cars and to partying.  He admitted that he didn’t focus on his tennis and lost early in many of the matches in the second half of the year, watching his ranking plummet.

2013 appeared to be promising as well.  Tomic won his first title in Sydney.  He lost to Federer in the Australian Open once again, but a round earlier.  Despite a rather lopsided loss, Tomic appeared to push Federer to greater heights, and so his loss seemed good.

But, much like 2012, Tomic has struggled once he has left home soil.  He lost in Rotterdam to Dimitrov, a player considered one of his contemporaries, then went 3 rounds in Marseille, losing to Tsonga, then retired in Dubai, and lost to Gasquet in the second round Indian Wells.

Tomic has been playing well enough if the players are ranked low enough, say, outside the top ten, but he is not consistently threatening the best players.

Tomic’s luck didn’t get better as he drew Murray in the second round.  However, he did do his job by winning against Gicquel.  This was a tough match, but the key was getting that win.

Against Murray, Tomic held serve rather easily the first two times.  He then pushed Murray to a 15-40 game, but Murray pushed it back to deuce.  Tomic earned another break point, but couldn’t convert.  Murray was able to hold.  Then, Tomic struggled quickly on his own serve getting down 0-40 and while he saved a few break points, he got broken.  At this point, the match turned and Murray just kept steamrolling Tomic mostly because Tomic couldn’t avoid making silly errors and lost focus while Murray was solid throughout.

Murray later admitted he didn’t exactly play his best tennis, but the turning point was that break, and he won.  Tomic, by contrast, was booed by the audience when he made way too many errors and looked like he didn’t care.

In earlier play, Gasquet beat Rochus, Youzhny beat Lu, Goffin upset Kohlschreiber.  Almagro, Raonic, Querrey also won against mostly unknowns.  Verdasco continued to struggle with a loss to Falla.  Tsonga beat Troicki. Nieminen upset Klizan easily.  Isner needed 3 sets and tiebreaks to beat Dodig.  Cilic and Seppi won.

Miami is missing 2 of its top 4 players.  Federer announced at the start of the year that he would skip Miami.  Nadal announced last week, he would also skip Miami.  However, Djokovic, Murray, and Ferrer are in this tournament.  del Potro, the finalist in Indian Wells, lost early to Kamke so he’s out.