Murray's Grand Slam challenge

Murray improved on his 2008 run at Wimbledon, where he reached the last eight

By Paul Birch

"I don't think I played that passive. I think I hit a lot of winners. You know, my game style against him is not always to go on the court and try and blast winners all the time."

That was Andy Murray's opinion after his four-set defeat by Andy Roddick in the Wimbledon semi-finals on Friday but there is a growing feeling that the world number three needs to alter his style to make the final step in Grand Slams.

Roddick's coach, Larry Stefanki - the man Murray wanted to coach him after he finished with Brad Gilbert - said: "He has to change his mentality of the way he wants to play this game at the very top level. He is stuck playing defensive tennis only, that was the big difference. I don't think he played enough offence."

Three-time Wimbledon singles champion Boris Becker told BBC Radio 5 Live's Sportsweek: "I believe Andy needs to be a little more aggressive from the baseline because the big matches are won by big shots but he has had a very good tournament, he's only just turned 22 and he'll be fighting for Grand Slam titles for many years to come."

And Rod Laver, who triumphed in the men's final at SW19 four times in the 1960s, agreed, and stated: "Andy has to be able to play steady, not defensively necessarily but keeping the ball rolling, but he has access to a great backhand, which he hits extremely well down the line and he probably didn't do as much of that as he could against Roddick. The rest of his game stayed defensive and he could have pushed and used his groundstrokes a little more severely."

We spoke to BBC commentator Mark Petchey, a former coach of Murray, to get his views on the Scot's Grand Slam defeats over the last 12 months and what he can learn from them.

2008 WIMBLEDON QUARTER-FINALS - LOST TO RAFAEL NADAL 6-3 6-2 6-4

Brutal Nadal sweeps aside Murray

Andy Murray:"I didn't feel like my legs were all that heavy. That had absolutely no bearing on the result at all. Rafa's improved so many things in his game on grass. I have to look at my game, work on some things and try to get up to that level. I do think it's possible"

Mark Petchey's verdict: "I think the physical nature of the battle against Nadal that day taught him a valuable lesson, I think he learnt from that and he went from strength to strength.

"His off-court training and the physical side of things he has done has, for sure, put him up there with the best on the Tour in terms of fitness.

606: DEBATE Should Murray change his game?

"If you look at his results that followed in the 2008 American hard-court season and, in particular, the win against Nadal in the semi-final of the US Open, I would say that was a good indicator that he had learnt from the defeat at Wimbledon and really put it into practice."

2008 US OPEN FINAL - LOST TO ROGER FEDERER 6-2 7-5 6-2

Superb Federer ends Murray dream

Andy Murray:"I know mentally now that I can get to a Slam final, and physically. The only thing it comes down to is the tennis."

Mark Petchey's verdict: "He learnt lesson after lesson from a match like that one.

Murray was comprehensively beaten by Federer at the US Open

"Roger is ultimately going to go down as the greatest player that ever played the game so to have to play him in his first-ever Grand Slam final was always going to be fairly awkward and a difficult occasion for him to handle.

"That process is ongoing and he will continue to have to improve and do things a little bit better. You've got to keep taking the steps and that was a big one for him."

2009 AUSTRALIAN OPEN FOURTH ROUND - LOST TO FERNANDO VERDASCO 2-6 6-1 1-6 6-3 6-4

Murray sent crashing by Verdasco

Andy Murray:"He served huge. He started serving like, 215 kph-plus (134 mph) on a lot of his first serves."

Mark Petchey's verdict:

"Verdasco hit a purple patch on his serve that day. It was quite tough for Andy, as again like with the Roddick match, I don't think he did anything wrong but when a guy is serving as well as Verdasco with his leftie serve it is so difficult.

"The Spaniard played an incredibly impressive couple of sets and not too many people would have had money on him maintaining that against Andy, who psychologically puts a lot of doubt into players' minds with the quality of his returns.

"That was the first time we had really been able to see Verdasco maintain that type of level, particularly with his forehand, as in the past he was pretty flaky.

"I would argue Andy played the match in the way that you would expect him to win it nine times out of 10. So again I'd like to tip my hat to Verdasco rather than say that Andy did too much wrong."

2009 FRENCH OPEN QUARTER-FINALS - LOST TO FERNANDO GONZALEZ 6-3 3-6 6-0 6-4

Inspired Gonzalez sees off Murray

Andy Murray:"It's easy to look from the side and think you could have done this, you could have done that, but the guy was just hitting it so hard."

Mark Petchey's verdict: "Fernando Gonzalez is a confidence player and when he got a quick lead in that third set Andy found it difficult to get the ball back as the Chilean was hitting it huge.

Murray was overpowered by Fernando Gonzalez in Paris

"Without being in Andy's camp sometimes you don't know enough but the one thing I would say if I had lost that match is that maybe his strings weren't right as he couldn't generate as much pace as Gonzalez.

"Maybe his racquet could have done with being a little tighter to generate more pace. At the end of the day he was just getting punished, he was trying, but no-one hits it as hard as Fernando.

"Also clay is still a learning curve for him. He has had his best ever season on that surface but it is still very much a surface that it is going to take longer for him to achieve success on."

2009 WIMBLEDON SEMI-FINALS - LOST TO ANDY RODDICK 6-4 4-6 7-6 (9-7) 7-6 (7-5)

Murray suffers semi-final misery

Andy Murray:"My game style against him is not always to sort of go on the court and try and blast winners, you know, all the time. Because he has such a big serve that you need to try and, you know, get into points and make returns."

Mark Petchey's verdict: "I feel like Roddick played the best match he had ever played at the net and that is a real tribute to him.

"I think again in the cold light of day, given how well Roddick was playing, there was a need for Murray to be a little bit pro-active in the tie-breaks when he was in some of those rallies.

"Normal thinking would say Murray is going to win most of those rallies eight times out of 10 but Roddick kept winning them at crucial times.

"Logic says, 'I should play this way' but actually the reality is, 'this guy is playing like a dream and I need to take it away from him' and that's the difference between winning and losing.

"Match point was a case in point for me.

"Roddick laid a racquet on the return and got it back into play so that wasn't an easy shot for Murray to be aggressive on but the next couple of shots after that maybe he could have tried to dictate the point a little bit more.

"Roddick on the other hand said when he had half a chance, 'I am going to do something with the ball'."

WHAT IMPROVEMENTS DOES MURRAY NEED TO MAKE?

"People say that his passiveness is the one part of his game he needs to improve on most but I think he has improved it.

Petchey coached Murray from July 2005 to April 2006

"His natural inclination will always be to play the way that he feels most comfortable with and if you look at all the top players, to a large degree, they are all protective about changing their natural game.

"Federer though has shown a willingness to introduce the drop shot into his game and there is no question about it that it was that shot that won him the French Open.

"Maybe in a few key points Murray might feel that when a guy's playing well he should be the one that has got to take the initiative a bit more and get into the net."

HAS ANDY BEEN FOUND OUT TACTICALLY?

"Following the way he has lost in his last few Grand Slams I don't think players will think that Andy has been found out.

"If you look at the five defeats, his opponents have played the best possible tennis they could have played.

"I think what Federer is achieving now is masking what happens in a normal era.

"People normally do lose reasonably early in Slams occasionally, it happened even during Sampras's career, but no-one has ever really done what Roger's doing now."

WHAT NEXT?

"I have no worries about his mental strength because he is such a vicious competitor who wants to win everything.

"He is entering the next era of his career and he will be hunted week in, week out and that isn't always as fun as being the one who is doing the hunting.

"That is only going to get worse the more successful he gets.

"When I worked with him it was obvious straight away how competitive he is. He probably hates to lose more than he loves to win and that's what will drive him it to greater heights.

"His time will come, roll on the US Open."