Murray’s heading for a fall
He may slump to No 16
Andy Murray, novak djokovic, Stan Wawrinka, Serena Williams — it could turn out to be quite a reunion at the australian Open in January.
We do not expect to see any of them much before then, although following his late withdrawal from Flushing Meadows on Saturday night, Murray is yet to confirm that he is closing down his season for good.
He is unlikely to make a decision until he returns home but he is facing the biggest questions about the longevity of his career since back surgery in September 2013. Murray gave no detail about a hip condition that allows him to play to a certain level, but not the one he wants to attain. Tennis players are hardly immune from such injury, but surgery in that area has spelt the end of some careers at the highest level.
Gustavo Kuerten, david nalbandian and Magnus norman are among those who could not regain past glories, although Tommy Haas continued late into his 30s, post-operation.
Murray clearly believed he was close to being fit enough for the uS Open, otherwise why fly across the atlantic with your whole team and spend nearly a week practising on site beforehand?
He was also willing to risk the inevitable flak for pulling out after the draw was made, preventing third seed roger Federer from moving into the bottom half of the draw, and leaving the Swiss scheduled to meet top seed rafael nadal in the semi-final.
Todd Woodbridge was among those on Twitter who weighed in saying that while he felt sorry for Murray, he had ‘ruined the uS Open draw’.
Even if we assume that Murray rehabs his way back to better fitness by the time of Melbourne, his world could look somewhat different by then. For a start, the loss of computer points in the intervening time would mean that his ranking would have fallen to somewhere around 16, its lowest listing since May 2008.
you also have to wonder how much more of a part Ivan Lendl will play in his career. apart from a spell around the French Open and Wimbledon, the pair have barely been together since January. The long- distance relationship hardly looks satisfactory when it comes to managing and monitoring the kind of year his charge has gone through.
Lendl tends to plead ignorance when it comes to Murray’s various ailments, which are increasingly looking like mental and physical burnout, not unlike the case of djokovic.
It could well be that the days of Murray working himself into the ground to prepare for tournaments, and barely ever taking a proper unenforced break, are over.
as he departs an event of which he is fond, the harsh reality for Murray is that — for all the advice he has taken and the painstaking hours he has put in — he has not moved on from the day he limped out of July’s Wimbledon quarter-final.