Summary
EMILIO Sanchez takes a personal, almost paternal interest in his former star pupil's welfare. The brother of Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, and co-founder of the Sanchez-Casal Academy in Barcelona where Andy Murray spent three of his teenage years, regards the Scot's achievements at the top end of the sport with immense pride. The 23- year-old from Dunblane is rated the best male player ever to grace the academy, with Grand Slam singles winners Svetlana Kuznetsova, Ana Ivanovic, Martina Navratilova and Sanchez's own sister setting the standard on the female side. But that doesn't mean Sanchez feels any contractual obligation to sugarcoat his opinions.
Murray has lost nine of the 20 matches he has contested since reaching the Australian Open final in January, enough of a blip, Sanchez feels, to see the upward trajectory of his progress start to flatline. It is the kind of crisis point where the truly great players dig deeper into their reserves and find a way to take that next, elusive step forward. Ever since the headstrong 13-year-old Murray passed his informal entrance exam for the academy by routing him 6-3, 6-1, the Scot has had Sanchez convinced of his ability to find all of these answers. The Spaniard just wonders how severely that precious confidence of his has been damaged in the interim.See the full content of this document
Extract
A Battle of Mind and Soul
"In the last month it feels like he is flatlining, like his progress has been flat, but that is something that happens to all the great players, their graph never grows steadily, it is like the stock market," said Sanchez, whose last meeting with the Scot came at the ATP Masters event in Barcelona. "Sometimes it stays still, then you have to dig d...
See the full content of this document
Sponsored links
