Andy Murray’s Best Season so Far

Andy Murray has been a rightful member of the ‘Big Four’ for the last few years, yet fans of the other members seldom give him the recognition he deserves. Many tennis buffs have considered the idea of the ‘Big Three’ or the ‘Trivalry’ between Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, leaving Andy Murray on the sidelines. But what was Andy Murray’s best season till date?

In 2017, the Scot was sidelined by injury for much of the season along with Novak Djokovic. As a result, he was always in someone else’s shadow. But in his defense, every other player on tour has been in the shadows as one man dominated every big tournament. However, Murray registered the finest and most convincing season of his career in 2015.

The Dunblane native spent most of 2014 recovering from a back injury. A year later, he enjoyed a perfect start to the season, reaching the Australian Open finals for the fourth time in his career. Even though he ended up on the losing side there were loads of positives that Andy could take from his performance into the rest of the season. One of which was that he entered the Top 4 rankings for the first time in 12 months.

His impressive performances continued as he won matches at the Miami masters. In the process, Andy recorded the 500th match win of his career, becoming the first British to do so in Open era. In the finals, he again lost to Novak, being bageled in the deciding set.

The premier taste of success came at the Munich Open, where Andy collected first ever ATP title on clay. At Madrid masters, the Scot broke free from the shackles of doubt as he defeated the ‘King of Clay’, Rafael Nadal to claim his second consecutive clay court title. Back to back victories on clay court had helped Andy by bolstering his confidence. At the French Open, Andy found Novak standing in his way yet again. Trying to make it third time lucky for the season against the Serbian, Andy mustered strength to drag the semi-finals to a fifth set. However, Novak upped his game at just the right time to record his 8 consecutive win against Andy Murray.

Andy ended the clay court season with a 15-1 win loss record implying a winning percentage of 93.8% which is a quantum leap from his 67.2% career win percentage on clay.

Switching over to grass from clay, Andy had a glorious start, winning the title at Queen’s club. He had won the title here multiple times before, more importantly, he went on to win the biggest tournament of his life, Wimbledon, in 2013. This year at Wimbledon, Andy faced the seven time champion Roger Federer in the semi-finals. Andy was totally outclassed as he went down in straight sets 7-5 7-5 6-4.

Andy finally recorded a win against Novak, as he took out the Serbian 6-4 4-6 6-3 in the finals of the Canada masters. This victory came with an added bonus as it took Andy back to the second spot in world rankings.

The rest of the season saw its ups and downs but held no more titles for Andy. He finished the year with a 69-14 win-loss record with 9 of those 14 losses coming to the other members of the ‘Big Four’. He reached 7 finals in total losing 3 of them to Novak Djokovic. His 69 win record in 2015 is why this was Andy Murray’s best season.