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Is Murray using mind games during matches?

4K views 49 replies 34 participants last post by  Sophocles 
#1 ·
"I don't mind mind games as it brings spice to the confrontations, but please, spare me of this BS that Federer is some classy guy who doesn't play dirty. He does, just like Nadal, Nole and Murray"
Quoted from the closed thread.
I thought about it and I can't remember a single occasion when he tried to disrupt his opponent in such way, unlike the other three. He is mostly abusive to himself only.
Can anyone actually remember him doing something like that?
 
#2 ·
Murray did it to Nieminen at Roland Garros. Always looking like he is dead tired is mind games, but players have to be professional and focus on the round yellow thing and hit it.
 
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#22 ·
This is a joke? He needs mind games to beat Nieminen? Or was he actually in pain and he fought through it? The Murray hate on this board is absurd.
 
#3 ·
Crap, I forgot bunch of people think he is grabbing his hamstring on purpose...
Other than that?
 
#4 ·
That is still mind games, all the top guys do it. Edberg, Rafter and Wilander were probably the only multi Slam winners that never did it.
 
#6 ·
Sure, I, for one, was always having problems finishing opponent off when he seems at disadvantage. I was never a professional, though.
Question is whether Andy does it on purpose to mess with his opponents?
 
#17 ·
Funny how he withdrew from his next match, eh. Yeah totally faking. :rolleyes:
 
#13 ·
Mandy is a cheating mug, almost as bad as Dull's cheating but he'll never reach the piggie's level.
 
#15 · (Edited)
guilty of the injury "faking" and questionable MTOs but at least he isn't delaying all aspects of the game.

Also Murray is one of the better at turning matches. Playing bad himself or opponent in god mode then he has horrible body language. That can give the opponent confidence. Even crappy lower ranked guys starting to take out the victory. Then suddenly he smells weakness and goes all super-pumped. The pushing can be relentless and he can go from looking like he had given up to look like he's fighting for his life on every point.

Some opponents crap their pants then and choke. Murray has turned many matches being 0-2 down with such mind games. Maybe it wasn't on purpose early in his career but now that he's seen it work so many times I think he's being very self-destructive / injured on purpose just to set the opponent up for a nasty surprise.
 
#18 ·
This isn't the first time I've seen it suggested that Murray was somehow faking his issues against Nieminen. Did he decide to donate the first set as well?! Ffs, I don't think there's a more obvious case of someone genuinely having a physical struggle.

Funniest thing was that blog of Nieminen's where he was suggesting Andy had nothing to hurt him with.. :haha: Christ, Andy was even handing him his backside when he was still a scrawny kid, how delusional can you be...
 
#19 ·
his psychedelic outfit does the job.
 
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#26 · (Edited)
Murray does play mind games, just like the other top guys. His main trick is to give impression to his opponent that he is struggling, that he is physically exhausted. How many times have we seen Murray grab his back, or his knee when he loses a point? Then when he wins a point and he's fine. Few minutes later he loses a point and he starts grabbing his knee/back again.

It's VERY tricky to play an opponent who is REALLY either injured or physically tired. When you play someone who looks injured, your natural instinct (conscious and/or sub-conscious) is to lower your game, to play safer, to make him run. Why go for the lines, red-line your game when your opponent is struggling, right? Wrong! Murray is not injured, he is not tired, he just wants you to think he is, so that you lower your standard of play, and then he strikes. Once you lower your standard of play, it's very difficult to raise it. Momentum is gone, confidence is gone, and you start making errors you were not making few games earlier. Nothing wrong with that trick imo. If you as a player, as a pro, allow yourself to be manipulated like that, you deserve everything you get, and you're not a pro (in that match at least) no matter what your ranking says.

Murray's tactic is no different to Nole or Rafa taking a medical timeout. Both tricks serve the same purpose: to destroy your opponent's rhythm, his confidence. To swing the momentum back in your favor. The only difference between the two tricks is that what Murray is doing takes a little longer to work (few games, or even a set), while medical timeout can have an immediate effect, unless the opponent is a true pro and blocks it out. Once the momentum is gone, there is no going back. These top guys are almost impossible to stop once you give them back the momentum, especially against lower ranked opponents.

Pros are impermeable to mind games.
 
#28 ·
Murray does play mind games, just like the other top guys. His main trick is to give impression to his opponent that he is struggling, that he is physically exhausted. How many times have we seen Murray grab his back, or his knee when he loses a point? Then when he wins a point and he's fine. Few minutes later he loses a point and he starts grabbing his knee/back again.

It's VERY tricky to play an opponent who is REALLY either injured or physically tired. When you play someone who looks injured, your natural instinct (conscious and/or sub-conscious) is to lower your game, to play safer, to make him run. Why go for the lines, red-line your game when your opponent is struggling, right? Wrong! Murray is not injured, he is not tired, he just wants you to think he is, so that you lower your standard of play, and then he strikes. Once you lower your standard of play, it's very difficult to raise it. Momentum is gone, confidence is gone, and you start making errors you were not making few games earlier. Nothing wrong with that trick imo. If you as a player, as a pro, allow yourself to be manipulated like that, you deserve everything you get, and you're not a pro (in that match at least) no matter what your ranking says.

Murray's tactic is no different to Nole or Rafa taking a medical timeout. Both tricks serve the same purpose: to destroy your opponent's rhythm, his confidence. To swing the momentum back in your favor. Once the momentum is gone, there is no going back. These top guys are almost impossible to stop once you give them back the momentum, especially against lower ranked opponents.

Pros are impermeable to mind games.
This is a joke. No, there is clear difference between an involuntary tic and clearly deciding when you opponent is a on a roll to delay play to check out the tape on your knee.

More often than not when Murray is grabbing himself, he does not play any better or worse, nor does his opponent, he can do it when he's winning and still win, and when he's losing and still lose.
 
#33 ·
I don't think Murray does it intentionally, but the way he groans and reacts as if he won't be able get to a ball is incredibly annoying. He reacts as if to say, "Oh dear, there is absolutely no way I will be able to run this shot down!" And of course he's there in plenty of time. I think it's a subconscious bluff.
 
#35 ·
Murray dosen't play mindgames intentionally the way nadal does for instance.

When things arent going his way sometimes his psychological symptoms can manifest into physical ones. Thats about all, he isn't doing it to put the other guy off if anything it only hurts his performance.
 
#41 ·
Murray dosen't play mindgames intentionally the way nadal does for instance.

When things arent going his way sometimes his psychological symptoms can manifest into physical ones. Thats about all, he isn't doing it to put the other guy off if anything it only hurts his performance.
And you know this how? Are you a mind reader? When Nadal takes a medical time out, why don't you apply the same "sometimes his psychological symptoms can manifest into physical ones" BS? How come is it only when it comes to Murray that you can read minds? Could it be because you're a Murray fan and far from objective on this matter?
 
#37 ·
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this out. One of the first basic lessons in confrontational sports like boxing and wrestling is to act strong when you're weak, act weak when you're strong. If an opponent falls for it, that's on him. If an opponent lets up on the attack, that's on him. Subconscious or not, no one is forcing him to go easy on you. Every professional athlete and a vast majority of people know this simple tactic. When Djokovic appeared to start breathing heavily and gestured to his team in the fourth set during the AO final the commentators mentioned that he's in trouble, I knew better than to count him out, he wasn't in trouble, and Nadal didn't let up. You can throw all the mind games that you can at an opponent but if said opponent is smart enough to not be bothered by it, it all cancels out and only athletic ability matters. If anyone falls for these so called 'mind games' he's a mental midget.
 
#38 ·
All tennis pros engage in mind games, as a competitor you have to mentally tough enough to block it out and focus on hitting that fuzzy yellow ball and getting the match won. A lot easier said than done I know.
 
#43 ·
That makes way too much sense for some MTF posters on here. Yes, all players engage in mind games. I have no problem with it. It's just another test you have to pass during a match. But apparently some posters on here believe what they want to believe about their favorite players and think that they are different and never use mind games. Denial.
 
#45 ·
In Shanghai Final Murray was incessantly cursing whenever Djokovic was playing good. Although you cannot fault him for that because it looks as if he is doing it on himself. But actually he is doing nothing but jinxing the opponent. But afterall its a Professional game and like the Man from Scandinavia said. Its a Professional game and at the end of the day you have to see the yellow Ball and whack it and forget everything else.
 
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