Andy Murray is 1 match win away from the World #2 ranking |
In addition to a coveted Masters shield, Murray is also playing for an even bigger prize: the #2 ranking on the ATP World Tour. If he wins the title he will return to the #2 spot (which he last held for 3 weeks in August 2009), but more importantly he will be ranked ahead of Roger Federer for the first time in his career. Murray deserves the #2 ranking, he is the only player to have been in the last 3 consecutive major finals (2012 Wimbledon final l. Federer, 2012 US Open final w. Djokovic, 2013 Australian Open final l. Djokovic). Although, if you look at the last 4 majors, both Murray and Djokovic have been in 3 of the last 4 majors. If Murray wants to be #1 in the world by the end of the year (which is a possibility) he will need to dramatically improve his clay court results, especially in the Masters Shields events in Monte Carlo, Madrid and Rome. Unfortunately for Murray's plans to reach #1, the King of Clay Rafael Nadal is back, and appears to be playing well.
To even have a chance at #1 he has to reach #2, and to get there Murray has to beat Ferrer in the final. The Briton has a surprisingly slight 6-5 career head-to-had advantage over. This record sounds closer than it is because 4 of the 5 losses have been on clay, where Murray has under-performed in the last few years. On hard courts Murray leads 5-1, with the one loss coming at the 2011 ATP World Tour Finals which Murray withdrew from after that match. On a (relatively fast) hard court, Murray is showing that he is at least the second best player in the world, and has been for probably more than a year. Soon his ranking will reflect that fact, since that is the surface most of the important tournaments on the tour are played on.
MadProfessah prediction: Murray.
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