Novak Djokovic won mental battle with Andy Murray, says Annabel Croft
Monday 9 May 2016 10:30, UK
Annabel Croft believes Novak Djokovic’s superior mental strength was the key to his victory over Andy Murray in the final of the Madrid Open.
Djokovic claimed his 29th Masters title with a hard-fought 6-2 3-6 6-3 victory over the British No 1.
Sky Sports tennis expert Croft was impressed with Murray's technique and tactics but felt he was lacking in the mind.
She said: "When you watch Novak, he is so incredibly balanced on a tennis court and he has such incredible precision and depth in terms of his ground strokes that is it very difficult to get him off balance and make him uncomfortable.
"Novak stays so calm. He is very Zen-like out there and it is very difficult to get into his head psychologically. He just doesn't give anything away. Once again, I feel that psychologically, he definitely has the edge.
Novak stays so calm. He is very Zen-like out there and it is very difficult to get into his head psychologically.
"That's what he does: he takes the legs and lungs out of a lot of opponents. He didn't take the legs and lungs out of Andy today, but psychologically he starts to eat into you when he is winning some of those longer rallies."
Murray has reached the semi-final of the Monte Carlo Masters and final of the Madrid Open so far in his clay-court season and will now head to the Rome Masters for one final warm-up before the French Open, which starts on May 22.
Croft has been impressed with the 28-year-old's form on clay this year and believes he should travel to Rome with confidence.
She said: "There are a lot of plusses about the way he is playing his tennis on a clay court.
"He is hitting the ball beautifully and, for me, the most outstanding improvement in his game is the serve.
"That serve was consistently a lot bigger than Novak's out there today in terms of its speed, but the second serve was far less attackable, it's got a lot more bite on it, it's kicking up more and it's coming through the court as well. There are a lot of positives for him."
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