Since John McEnroe turned the air blue in the 80s, memorably at decorous Wimbledon but without
Coyotes Jersey fear or favour across the tennis landscape, the sport has struggled to
[img width=118,height=118]http://www.authenticcapitalshop.com/images//nhl_jerseys_new/washington_capitals/capitals_381.jpg[/img] accommodate what it regards as unsportsmanlike conduct, as quaint a notion as unparliamentary behaviour at Westminster.Andy Murray internalises his angst, beating himself up verbally rather than abusing his racket, the ground or the ball kids.En route to the fourth round against the young Russian Karen Khachanov on Monday, Murray has chuntered, cursed, smiled and shushed – all in rhythm with his sense of comfort and the level of his play. After a lot of “shushing” to himself and a few wicked glances towards his box in his tense win against Juan Martín del Potro on Saturday, he was happy to explain, perhaps for the first time in detail, what makes his verbal tics tick.“I was still muttering a lot today,” he said, “maybe not so much at the beginning – but I was losing at the beginning. I don’t know how much of an impact it has on my tennis. What is actually relevant is not what I say the four or five seconds after a point is finished; what’s relevant is the 10, 15 seconds before the next point starts, what is actually going through my head.“If I’m thinking about the next point and what I’ve done wrong
http://www.officialarizonacoyotes.com/Adidas-Alex-Goligoski-Jersey or what I’ve done right in the previous point, that’s very positive. If I’m muttering for 20 seconds, then that isn’t going to be a good thing because I’m not thinking about the next point.“I felt like when I was getting frustrated [on his way to defeating Del Potro 7-6, 7-5, 6-0]. I stopped myself fairly quickly and got back to playing the right way. I turned it around quickly – and I deserve credit for doing that. I know my head right now is in the right place because I am working things out on the court and that’s what I care about.”It would be a shame if Murray ever succumbed to the urgings of those who find his on-court ramblings odd or disturbing. They are part of who he is. He has discussed it with professionals, he reveals – although he has not considered using a psychologist this year, which is proving difficult after the non-stop highs of 2016.“I feel like when I’ve used sports psychologists in the past, I’ve done it when I felt like I wanted to. That’s the most important thing. If it is forced upon you, I don’t really think that that works. You need to be the one deciding ‘I want to
Blackhawks Womens Jersey do this’.”Murray’s is the contentment of the driven champion, not necessarily that of a banker, coalminer or journalist. The adrenaline that rushes through him in moments of tension during a big match is surely what keeps him coming back for more.“I wasn’t playing well enough last week to win the tournament,” he also admitted. “When I was practising, I wasn’t playing well enough. But things can change very quickly. You don’t become a bad tennis player overnight. It can only take one or two good practices, providing you’re trying to do the right things in practice. It wasn’t going to be easy but I feel like I’ve done a good job of that. I’m playing way better than I was a week, 10 days ago.”And that’s the beauty of Murray: it is impossible to predict which version of him will turn up.But which Khachanov will we get? Murray takes a walk into the relatively unknown at the beginning of the second week – against a boy named Karen (with the emphasis on the second syllable, he reminded us on Sunday), who played some tough tennis to get the better of John Isner over four sets in three hours on the claustrophobic court 2 The 21-year-old
http://www.officialchicagoblackhawks.com/Adidas-Andrew-Desjardins-Jersey Russian has not quite lived up to the 2013 assessment of his compatriot, the former world No1 Yevgeny Kafelnikov, who said of him: “He will be in the top 20 by the end of 2015.” But he reached a career-high of 42 last month before slipping to 53, four places behind Kyle Edmund and two ahead of Dan Evans. He did look like a top-20 player against Isner, who struck 14 aces to go with the 66 he had already accumulated at the top of the tournament’s serving statistics.Khachanov beat the stubborn American at his strong suit as well, prevailing in two of the three tie-breaks to win 7-6 (1), 6-3, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (3). He is unlikely to need motivation in the biggest match of his life but he might draw inspiration from trying to avenge Murray’s win over Del Potro. The Argentinian was Khachanov’s favourite player growing up in Moscow.But, he said, he will not explode like his other hero, the eccentric Russian Marat Safin. Khachanov’s off-court obsession is chess, so there will be plenty of room for mind games.There have been some classic outbursts in the first week of this French Open. Nick Kyrgios brought his fines for the past 12 months to £25,000 with a racket smash during his exit at the hands of Kevin Anderson, and Novak Djokovic was soundly ticked off for gesturing to throw his racket at the umpire at a stressful moment in his tortured win against Diego Schwartzman on Friday.
