Andy Murray had a number of impressive victories last year. He took out Lleyton Hewitt in the San Jose final, he ousted Andy Roddick from Wimbledon, and he shocked Roger Federer in Cincinnati. But even with this impressive resume, I was still hesitant to believe some of the highly touted claims from Murray's camp of supporters.

What I remembered from Murray was his "sick" win during the 2005 U.S. Open, one where he quite literally got sick on the court, but still managed to pull out a five-setter against Andrei Pavel.

The ability to stick it out and get that victory, down two sets to one no less, is to be commended, but I instead chalked it up as a negative in the fitness department - this was a first round match remember. Still, wherever I went, all I heard was Murray this, Murray that . . . I wasn't buying it quite - yet.

The following year, he claimed his first title in San Jose, but up until Wimbledon, this was his only encouraging result (his next best finishes were quarter-final losses in Memphis and Queen's Club).

Accordingly, when he defeated Andy Roddick in the third round on Centre Court, I gave a lot of the credit to outside factors - the obvious pro-Murray crowd, and also, the immense pressure that was building on Roddick due to a poor year up to that point.

Justified or not, it was an impressive win - and maybe one that I should have paid more attention to. But it was hard to get behind a Briton who claims that his favourite tournament isn't Wimbledon, but instead is the U.S. Open.

Hard to believe? I thought that way too, but check out this superb interview (which I believe was written a few months ago) that confirms it.

You don't need a Ph.D in psychology to guess what I thought of Andy's win over Roger Federer in Cincinnati. As it has been beaten to death by this point, I won't go into a large analysis, but suffice it to say that after Federer's win in Toronto, his preparation for the Cincy Masters (only days later) was questioned.

But in all honesty, I shouldn't have been slighting Murray's achievements, regardless of what other elements factored into their end result. Look at some of his 2006 accolades, post-Wimbledon:

- Newport, United States: Semi-finals (lost to Gimelstob).
- Washington, United States: Final (lost to Clement).
- Toronto, Canada: Semi-finals (lost to Gasquet).
- Cincinnati, United States: Quarter-finals (lost to Roddick).
- U.S. Open: Round of 16 (lost to Gonzalez).
- Madrid, Spain: Round of 16 (lost to Djokovic)
- Paris, France: Round of 16 (lost to Hrbaty).

I don't think anyone would argue that these are pretty impressive results. Now, look what Murray has done in 2007:

- Reached the finals of Doha, Qatar (lost to Ljubicic).
- Reached the round of 16 at the Australian Open (lost to Nadal).
- Defended his title in San Jose.

The tennis "off-season" clearly had no ill effects in stopping Murray's momentum.

What I saw from Murray in San Jose was very impressive, even if this is a relatively minor tournament. Consider that he defeated two of the ATP Tour's premier servers (possibly the best two) on a surface that was lightning fast, according to many on site. He was never really threatened by Roddick in their semifinal, and against Karlovic, he broke the Croat's serve more than the rest of the field did prior to the final, thanks to his sublime returns. Most impressive was that he countered Ivo's impressive serve-and-volley game with tremendous passing shots that rarely missed their target. This was the most entertaining final of the year that I've watched, even if Fox Sports Net didn't do it justice by only showing the first three games of the first two sets, and then skipped ahead to 5-4 on each. If you're going to cover the event, cover it live. Not good times. Thankfully, Ted Robinson was doing commentary, along with Jimmy Arias. Very good times.

No doubt some of the credit has to go to Brad Gilbert on the stamping of Murray on the map as one of tennis' best players (not just one of the best young players). Jimmy Connors has gotten the bulk of the press up to this point, but after Murray's 7-6, 6-4 toppling of the American, maybe we should talk more about Gilbert's techniques instead of the fact that he's simply the former coach of Roddick. Gilbert also has another edge over Connors - his subject is considerably younger than Jimmy's.

At only 19, there is much for Murray to improve upon, and he certainly has the time to do it. His drive seems to be unquestioned, and he has the shots in his bag. I wasn't sold on Murray being a sure-fire Grand Slam champion, even after his great finish to 2006. But from what I've seen this year, and in particular, his defense of his San Jose title, I'm converted. Maybe he'll win that U.S. Open title he wants so badly after all.

In Europe, Gilles Simon won his first career title in Marseille. I struck out on the early Gasquet prediction, as well as the second chance pick of Marcos Baghdatis in the final. However, a Frenchmen did indeed win on home soil, which was accurately prognosticated, and also, makes Simon the first player to achieve this feat in 2007.

Much the same handicapping embarrassment becomes my fate after the Brazil Open final, where Guillermo Canas, a wild card fresh off a doping ban, defeated Juan Carlos Ferrero by a 7-6, 6-2 score. I really am shocked that Ferrero couldn't pull it together for this final, considering his long drought without a championship - but I have to hand it to Canas for his performance, as well as Jon Wertheim, where somewhere in his archive, predicted that the Argentine would have a resurgence this year.

Three more tournaments are on slate this week:

- ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament (Rotterdam, Netherlands)
- Regions Morgan Keegan Championships (Memphis, United States)
- Copa Telmex (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

Of the three, the Memphis event looks to be the most intriguing. The draw is obviously laden with Americans, but also features Tommy Haas, Andy Murray, and even Juan Martin del Potro. And don't forget Ivo! I was pulling for the 28-year old in San Jose; he gets a tough first rounder in Sam Querrey in Tennessee.

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