Andy Murray: Meet the Second Best Player in the World

He hails from Glasgow, Scotland. He is quick to remind you that he is a Scot first and foremost.

In 2006 he had a run to the Wimbledon fourth round where he received encouragement from another famous Scot, James Bond himself, Sean Connery.

He is none other than Andy Murray, England’s hope for a Wimbledon title.

Fresh off his “Fifth Slam” victory in Key Biscayne, Florida, Murray is now gearing up for the clay court season.

The red dirt has not been favorable to Murray, as he has not had much success transferring his game from the hard courts to clay. This is a little paradoxical, seeing as Murray trained in Barcelona under the guidance of Emilio Sanchez after the age of 15.

However, looking at Murray’s game it is not hard to see the clay pedigree.

He is a classic counter-puncher.

His forehand is often found going cross-court and every once in a blue moon he will take a running forehand down the line. Murray’s most impressive asset is his two-handed backhand. He is able to take it down the line or cross-court with great efficiency and penetration.

Many, including myself, believe that it is the most devastating backhand in the game.

Perhaps the two most underrated aspects of Murray’s game are the ways he controls the pace of the match and his physical fitness.

Murray has an uncanny ability to dictate points with his mediocre forehand because he can change the speed at which the ball travels with remarkable ease, thus throwing off his competitors and setting up easy winners.

His fitness has also become a weapon. Taking the month of December to improve on this area has been crucial to his success against the top guns on the ATP tour.

Murray’s maturity has scaled new heights. His recent domination of Roger Federer has led most to peg him as the unofficial second-ranked player in the world.

This year he has victories in Doha, Rotterdam, and Miami. It represents his best start of the year to date and he has the opportunity to gain valuable ground during the clay-court season on current world No.3 Novak Djokovic.

Therein lies the problem for Murray, his clay success has been limited and in a world dominated by the man from Mallorca.  It can be hard to gain ground on anyone with so many other dangerous clay court specialists in the mix.

Murray will most likely have to get through one clay specialist to be able to meet Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.

I find it highly unlikely that Murray is able to topple the top two players on clay for a couple of reasons.

First, Murray’s game is hit or miss on clay, he enjoys long rallies yet is not as capable as Nadal and Federer at hitting shots on the run. In fact, when Nadal and Murray meet, Nadal’s game plan is usually centered on getting Murray off-balance and forcing him to hit winners on the run.

Second, Murray’s game, from a power standpoint, is not impressive. He gets away with it on hard courts because of the relatively fast nature of the courts. However, on clay those shots that would normally be winners are slowed down and able to be tracked down by your faster players.

To be a legitimate threat on today’s clay courts one must possess the patience and mental fortitude to hang in on long rallies and the power to be able to hit through the ball and create winners.

Overall, Murray’s run the past few months has been impressive. Considering his past experiences on clay, it would seem a safe bet that an ascent to the No.3 ranking will have to wait until the hard court season resumes in July.

But you shouldn't count Andy out yet.