ATP Cup Strategy Room: Murray's take on benefits

Jamie Murray revealed the ATP Cup strategy room to ATPTour.com - how small margeons and statistics can benefit in critical moments at the inaugural 24-team competition.

“I really like this stuff. Sometimes you can get too bogged down in it and then forget actually you need to go out and play and you’re worrying too much about what the other guys might do,” Murray said. "You’ve still got to focus on what you can do and what you can control, because at the end of the day you might think that the guy’s going to serve there, but he’s got free choice to do what he wants to do. You can definitely use it to your advantage, 100 per cent.”

Explaining that statistics - like first-serve percentages or first-serve points won - isn't the only key to advancing your game. “If I’m looking at the opponents that I’m going to play next, it’s more trying to find out almost like what they don’t do,” Murray said. “So if they play regular formation and they never cross, then I’ll know that I can keep returning crosscourt. Or one player, if he never serves wide on the deuce court, then I know I only have to protect the T serve and the body. So it’s things like that that kind of give you an edge.

“Maybe I’d filter second serves, where these guys are serving second serves. If they’re only serving in the body for example, then I know I don’t have to cover a wide serve, so I can cheat my position a bit. Or when they’re doing I-formation, is there a way that they always cover the cross-court return, or are they always covering down the line? Are there certain patterns that they like to play?”

On the other hand, the strategy room can also help in finding predictable flaws in your own game: “A big part of what we’re taught in Britain and our philosophy is to be unpredictable and not to be doing the same things over and over again,” Murray said. “When you’re out there, if it’s 4-4 deuce and you know that the guy never serves wide to you so you’ve only got to cover two serves instead of three, that’s a huge advantage and you can anticipate it a bit.”

“For a doubles team, if you had access to that [info from Strategy Room] the whole year, you can definitely use it to your advantage. It’s still obviously about getting out there and executing what you’re trying to do,” Murray said. “But it definitely helps if you know for sure certain plays that teams do or that they don’t do. That definitely gives you an edge when you’re going into matches.

Jaimie Murray concludes: “In doubles, the margins are so small and matches are deciding all the time by two or three points. So if you have that little extra edge, it can really help.”

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