Last week, when the men's singles draw came out, the ATP Masters 1000 event in Indian Wells already seemed to have a potential winner in Andy Murray. The Scot, the world no. 1, was designated the first half of the draw with a seemingly clear path towards the higher stages. All big names like Federer, Djokovic or Nadal were crowded in the bottom half. After a winning run in Dubai, Andy Murray seemed to have gathered some momentum on his side, but a qualifier did not agree. Ranked outside the top 100, Vasek Pospisil from Canada produced the biggest shock at Indian Wells, at least for now.

Murray failed to survive serve-and-volley strategy

Nowadays, the game of tennis is a matter of raw power and strength. The idea of playing serve-and-volley works well in a limited number of scenarios. Of course, it suits for an exhibition match or something similar when the whole stake is to entertain and to do so you need to lengthen the points. At a professional level, this is a suicidal strategy only a few successfully used it over the past years. For Murray, it seems that a nightmare has just born around the vintage tennis strategy. Back in January, in Australian Open's 4th round, Mischa Zverev successfully applied the approach in question stunning Murray in 4 sets. At Indian Wells, the 26-year-old Canadian Pospisil ousted Murray using the same tactical method.

A straight sets victory 6-4 7-6 against the world no. 1 means a lot for a player who seemed to have lost contact with great results in men's singles.

Murray is swimming in troubled waters

The Scot's run in 2017 has been an up and down inconsistent journey. He is far from the kind of tennis he showed in the 2nd part of 2016. According to the ATP official page, Murray is blaming himself for the lack of pace and his inability to create opportunities on his opponent's serve.

But the issues could be deeper as he struggled even on his own serve. There is more thing that also causes troubles. Once a player reaches the highest summit, that achievement alone turns him into a coveted target for the entire herd. So, once a low-ranked player senses the smell of blood or weakness, he immediately jumps on top of it. It's a tremendous reward for an average player to oust the current world no. 1.