Andy Murray revealed that he is surprised with his on-court competitiveness against the best on the tour.
3-time Slam champion talked about his awareness of how demanding it is for him to take the courts in the twilight of his career. Currently at the #44 spot in the ATP ranks, the 36-year old earlier reached post-injury career high ranking of #38. Murray admitted last year that he is one big injury away from retirement after already undergoing two major hip surgeries but has no definitive retirement date in mind right now.
The Brit was eliminated in a mouthwatering five-setter by world No. 5 Stefanos Tsitsipas in the R2 of Wimbledon last month after leading the Greek two sets to one.
The former world #1 holds a 9-10 record this year on the tour while also sealing three ATP Challenger Tour titles. The 2-time Wimbledon Champion is due to take part in this week’s Citi Open in Washington and still fancies about his chances to trouble the big guns in 2023.
“I’m surprised by that sometimes, because I know how difficult it is for me physically now. That my game is still able to match up and compete with the best players, yeah, I’m surprised by it,” Murray said in an interview with ATPTour.com.
The Scot who is the only man to win two Olympic singles golds (London 2012 and Rio 2016) also spoke about his first appearance in Washington back in 2006.
“Brad Gilbert’s here this week and the first week that we spent together was here when he started coaching me. We were chatting about it the other day, I remember the first match that I played here, I played against Ramon Delgado. And they didn’t use to play before like four o’clock, because of the conditions,” Murray explained.
“We were the first match on at four and I remember it just being brutally hot. I also played a match against Feli Lopez that year, and we got rained off because of thunderstorms and between the thunderstorms and going back out, I changed [my approach].
“A lot of people talk about the way that I returned now, I have quite a distinctive jump. And that started in that match, because Brad was saying I was standing too close to the baseline to return serve. So I had to go further back, which I did when we went back out there. And I instinctively started sort of jumping forwards before the return.”
Murray is set to play his opening game of the ATP 500 Citi Open either against Aleksandar Vukic or Brandon Nakashima in on Wednesday. Available for double duty, he will also participate in doubles with the fellow Brit partner Dan Evans.