Murray Ends Dolgopolov's Breakthrough Australian Open Run

Quickly browsing around the internet, it seems like everyone agrees that Alexandr Dolgopolov is unique and a breath of fresh air. Straight after Andy Murray's four set win over the Ukrainian, 7-5 6-3 6-7(3) 6-3, Murray had similar things to say. "No one plays like him".

Murray was likely to be the winner for most of the match, due to Dolgopolov making too many unforced errors, but it was also a good demonstration of Dolgopolov's range of shots, his potential, and his flaws.

Here's some information I gathered on him:

• Forehand: He can generate a lot of spin on the forehand, by brushing around the ball instead of driving through it, but it's not like a high-bouncing kind of top spin.  He can create good angles crosscourt, or hook it down-the-line where it curves back into the sideline. 
  
  
• Backhand: The forehand is the more aggressive shot, while the backhand he uses more as variety.  He has a very relaxed backswing on the double-handed backhand, and can change the pace with the same backswing.  He likes to use his slice backhand to construct points, with accurate crosscourt and down-the-line slices but sometimes tries to hit it better than he is capable of.
  
  
• Serve: He has a surprising ability to hit flat and hard serves sometimes, considering his height.  Because of his quick action, it probably feels like it arrives to his opponent even quicker.
  
  
• Mentality: He can make plenty of errors, but carry on the rest of the match without slumping the shoulders, and he'll still go for his shots.
  
  
• Consistency: He is a streaky player, can string together some great points, then lose just as quickly, or even more quickly.  There were phases in this match where he struggled to win a point.
  
  
• Fitness: It looks like he doesn't ever get tired or sluggish ever.  He does have plenty of concentration lapses though, and his shot selection could use some work.  I get the sense he gets carried away sometimes, and sometimes he tries to hit shots that are better than required.
  
  
• Movement: He has spectacular movement, as already mentioned before in a previous entry.
  

Compared to Dolgopolov's relaxed, fluctuating and varying performance throughout the match, Murray was a model of professionalism. Something that Dolgopolov will need to aspire to, to take his game to another level. He understands a little better the importance of putting your opponent under pressure.

Murray's return of serve was also a highlight, and gave him plenty of opportunity to compete well in the return games. His second serve could cause him problems from here onwards though, with a potential match-up against Rafael Nadal coming up next.

Personally for me, it's good to see a new and interesting player, but I'd prefer a player that doesn't make as many wild unforced errors. It amuses me that commentators and writers like to call wildly inconsistent players "an enigma" and "mercurial" like they're really fascinating and exciting characters. We'll see in the near future as to whether he can improve that area.