Heavy price for his injury battles
knee or hip replaced. And that’s for us in our forties and fifties.
“It’s a mystery to me why Murray does not just hang his racket up and enjoy life. Obviously he must love it.”
Cash believes people underestimate the mental strain put on players by the demands of the modern tour, especially now Murray has a second daughter, born in November, to add to his growing family.
“Slaving around a tennis circuit for 16 years is more than enough,” the 1987 Wimbledon champion said. “People forget, it is not like being a footballer, where they get taken care of, put on to buses, all their mates around them everywhere they go. And for five days a week they are not even playing matches.
“They maybe travel on the bus for a couple of hours or the worst they have to do is go to Europe. It’s a pretty good life and they get a shed load of money.
“Tennis is really tough. When you talk about a 15or 16-year career it really is 15 or 16 years with very little time off unless you have been injured. I am not sure why some of these guys carry on.
“It’s great to see them do it and they are playing so well. But it is a mystery. I was quite happy to hang my racket up.
“When I stopped I could go on holiday and do what I wanted to do. You don’t feel guilt about sleeping in and you are not exhausted all the time. It was a big relief.”