76 63 36 26 62
Marin looked to be cruising, taking the first two sets fairly easily. As it turned out, it might have been because A-Rod was having some nerve problems (heh) in his shoulder that was causing numbness in his fingers. Andy would press on and decide, well, if I'm going win or end this quickly I'm going to have to swing away. And swing away he did. The third and fourth set was the most impressive performance I've seen from A-Rod. He was playing aggressively, flattening his groundstrokes, hitting winners, it was great. Well...great if I was an A-Rod fan.
So the fifth set came. And I was certain Cilic was going to cave. He looked tired and Anydy looked like he had figured him out. But for whatever reason, Andy retreated back into his conservative game. He had triple break point in the first game of the fifth and failed to convert, allowing Cilic to hold. From there, Marin settled down and Andy completely lost any foothold on the match.
So once again, Andy flirts with a big five set win, only to fall short. He and Fernando need to go to group therapy together. It's getting annoying. And yes, Andy was not 100%. But seriously, he totally had Marin. He just completely lost the plot and gameplan. P-Mac had some interesting thoughts after the match. He said that A-Rod's conservative game, the game that comes naturally to him, keeps him in the conversation. But it's not enough to beat the top guys. Everyone acknowledges that Andy's performance in the third and fourth sets should be the standard that he shoots for. Unfortunately, it just doesn't look like he wants to play that way.
Congrats on your first Slam semifinal, Marin! Now lose please. Thanks.
