Simon Reed

Yeah, you all know this famous bandwagoner. Just reading his latest blog on Eurosport and he reckons Murray is one of the top 10 players in tennis history. Is there an easier job in the world than sports punditry or even sports "journalism"? Goodness me!

Oh for God's sake!!

These guys are beyond parody.

oh for heaven's sake! I'm as big a Murray fan as they come but this is beyond ridiculous!!!

Top 10. More likely Top 5

Seriously, Andy does have an impressive set of stats that does put him in a lot of Top 10 all time lists, but I do think that Fed, Laver, Sampras, Mac, Borg, Lendl, Agassi, Connors, Willander and Edberg (to say nothing of Becker, Nadal or Djokovic!!) might have a greater claim

I also think you can only judge thsi when a player's career is nearly over.

To be fair the rest of his article (attached for those interested) is certainly better than a lot of the tripe Overend writes for the BBC.
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/simon-reed/us-open-glory-just-start-magical-murray-143602932.html#more-id

Absolutely agree with him that winning the Olympics and then the US Open has finally cemented "the big 4" theory. Unfortunately he then gets carried away with the idea that "Murray is probably inside the top 10 to play the game". Good grief, the three current players with many more slams then the likes of Agassi , Sampras, Lendl, McEnroe, Borg, Connors, Wilander make a total of 10 players all way ahead before even considering the exploits of the likes of Laver and previous generations of tennis players.

He'll first of need to win a number of slams on top of this US Open crown to be considered amongst that elite company.

actually having read the article, if you take out the "Murray is probably inside the top 10 to play the game" sentence, it's a very good effort by Reed's (not very lofty) standards.

banbrotam wrote:Top 10. More likely Top 5

Seriously, Andy does have an impressive set of stats that does put him in a lot of Top 10 all time lists, but I do think that Fed, Laver, Sampras, Mac, Borg, Lendl, Agassi, Connors, Willander and Edberg (to say nothing of Becker, Nadal or Djokovic!!) might have a greater claim

I also think you can only judge thsi when a player's career is nearly over.

or you could just say Simon Reed's clueless. Much easier for you to pretend Andy is one of the greatest though aint it.

Mad for Chelsea wrote:actually having read the article, if you take out the "Murray is probably inside the top 10 to play the game" sentence, it's a very good effort by Reed's (not very lofty) standards.

It's better than abysmal, which is pretty much what you said. Still contains the usual absurd Reed hyperbole, such as some of the tennis was the best ever. Goldfish syndrome strikes again.

I thought the only great set from Murray was the last one the first two he won could have gone the other way but Novak was snoozing round the court feeling sorry for himself and not using his experience at all, still it's not Simon's job to be intelligent and well observed, all he has to do is provoke some responses with his Murray loving as it's worked for him before.

To put things in perspective.

Serena in the last couple of months won Wimbledon (singles and doubles), the Olympics (singles and doubles) and the US Open (just singles. I don't know what happened in the doubles that must have been a disaster...) Added to that are all her other achievements. But she doesn't even make it into everyones top 5 of best ever.

Simon Reed is hired by Yahoo to create some sense of humor in otherwise a boring serious Tennis section.

In that article he even quoted one more thing,

Simon Reed wrote:

Djokovic would have beaten anybody in the world in the third and fourth sets. I include Roger Federer and possibly Rafael Nadal.

First he says Djoko would have beaten anybody in that 3rd and 4th set and then in the next line he says possibly Nadal

Just coz Andy was a bit nervous in the 3rd and 4th coz of obivious reason he never won a slam and goofed up the 3rd and 4th didn't mean Djoko would have beaten anybody with that play in 3rd and 4th , we all know what happened to Djoko on Cinci finals, but unfortunately Simon Reed has the habit of over hyping things to get better pay from the UK counter parts.

IC good to have you back here

banbrotam wrote:
I also think you can only judge thsi when a player's career is nearly over.

Spot on. That is my take on this.

It Must Be Love wrote:IC good to have you back here

Thx IMBL, my pleasure to join you guys back.

Welcome back ic. Hope you enjoyed the final.

CaledonianCraig wrote:Welcome back ic. Hope you enjoyed the final.

Yup CC, tats one of the reason I came back, coz I was so delighted and happy to see Murray lift the trophy, when ever I watched the Match Djoko started to play well, so I decided to skip the complete 5th set barring the match point to see him win, I thought I could do a small sacrifice to see Murray win.

A really fabulous moment for him. Also it was a tad different to your normal slam win. I mean I suppose the last player to go through so many disappointments before landing a slam was Ivan Lendl so after so much pain and disappointment it was extra special seeing him do it.

I actually wanted DP to make the final, and was ready to see my fav. player lose for Murray win, but the win over Djoko was even more special and satisfying.

If I am right Murray's first masters win was again over Djoko in the final, this year is full of history and stats repeating.

CaledonianCraig wrote:A really fabulous moment for him. Also it was a tad different to your normal slam win. I mean I suppose the last player to go through so many disappointments before landing a slam was Ivan Lendl so after so much pain and disappointment it was extra special seeing him do it.

In a sense, I am glad that Lendl was/is his coach. Both of them looked very relaxed after the initial shock of the win wore off.

To be fair to Simon Reed, after Djokovic dominated in 2011 and Nadal was by a clear margin the no 2 player, he did an article

Federer and Murray will clean up in 2012
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/simon-reed/federer-murray-clean-2012-355.html

Quotes:
On Djokovic
"I have a theory that I'm happy to repeat to anybody who'll listen that Djokovic could well have peaked, and the rest of his career will be downhill from here. His motivation simply doesn't seem to have been there... 2012 will be one long anti-climax."

On Murray
"Federer and Murray must surely mop up 2012 between the two of them.
Murray has to make this his time. He will simply never have a better chance to win Grand Slams. Should Murray face up against anyone else in the world in a Grand Slam final next year, I'm convinced he'd win. Against Federer, I'd have serious worries that he will fall short once again."

On Federer
"Okay, so he's not what he was in 2006 or 2007, but the fact remains that as the year turns he is the best tennis player in the world. There's a distinct possibility - a probability, actually - that he'll win one or two Grand Slams next season, and if he does he'll likely become world number one again."

Not perfect, but not bad at all.

I agree HB, strangely last few months [i.e like 12-15] Simon got a lot of things right, I won't agree his statement regarding Muzza thou as he always blabbers some gibberish on him and some day it all have to come right and no wonder it happened this year finally, but predicting Federer year was stunning, Djoko prediction was expected and everybody knew about it.

Henman Bill wrote:To be fair to Simon Reed, after Djokovic dominated in 2011 and Nadal was by a clear margin the no 2 player, he did an article

Federer and Murray will clean up in 2012
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/simon-reed/federer-murray-clean-2012-355.html

Quotes:
On Djokovic
"I have a theory that I'm happy to repeat to anybody who'll listen that Djokovic could well have peaked, and the rest of his career will be downhill from here. His motivation simply doesn't seem to have been there... 2012 will be one long anti-climax."

On Murray
"Federer and Murray must surely mop up 2012 between the two of them.
Murray has to make this his time. He will simply never have a better chance to win Grand Slams. Should Murray face up against anyone else in the world in a Grand Slam final next year, I'm convinced he'd win. Against Federer, I'd have serious worries that he will fall short once again."

On Federer
"Okay, so he's not what he was in 2006 or 2007, but the fact remains that as the year turns he is the best tennis player in the world. There's a distinct possibility - a probability, actually - that he'll win one or two Grand Slams next season, and if he does he'll likely become world number one again."

Not perfect, but not bad at all.

Huh, I want to borrow his crystal ball.

A bit harsh on Novak IMO but obviously he was never going to repeat 2011. I really doubt he's on a downward slope for the rest of his career, he'll bounce back, if not the end of this year then next year.

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

Still, those were good predictions or 2012. But has anyone read the comment from 'Olivia' afterwards? That rather sets the record straight on Simon Reed and his random, cover-all-options opinions.

mthierry wrote:Yeah, you all know this famous bandwagoner. Just reading his latest blog on Eurosport and he reckons Murray is one of the top 10 players in tennis history. Is there an easier job in the world than sports punditry or even sports "journalism"? Goodness me!

Yeah that is a mindboggling statement I mean i kind of want to read the article to see in what context he made it in but that sounds beyond belief anyway you cut it. Murray is a great player but he has just one slam that is about all that I guess needs to be said on the subject.

"Murray is probably inside the top 10 players to play the game."

Very poorly (or not at all) clarified statement that just stands alone in the article like that. Use of "play" suggests present players, but obviously Murray is in the top players to play the game now, so presumably he means all history???

And perhaps he means top 10 in an absolute sense, e.g. the game has moved on and Murray would probably be able to beat Rod Laver in he travelled forward in a time machine. I'd say in that sense Murray possibly is top 10 along with Agassi, Sampras etc.

But in the more widely recognised sense of achivements within an era or vs contemporaries he's probably more like top 100.