27th August 2007
Seeded 10th in an event where he has never previously won a match, Murray has been told repeatedly by his clay-court coach Alex Corretja that the prime requisite in his bid to improve on January’s hugely disappointing Australian Open, when he lost in the first round, is to remain calm.
Last August, before the US Open, he even underwent a few anger-management sessions with sports psychologist Roberto Forzoni, an experience he has not seen the need to repeat, but he is aware that his feistiness is definitely an issue and admitted: “I was ranked No 8 in the world when I was 19 years old and there’s only been about 20 teenagers who have done that so if my temper was such a problem that I couldn’t play when I was getting angry then I don’t think I could have got to that level. It can be better but I don’t think that it’s been such a huge problem that it’s affected my game.”