I’d be happy to be the world No 30
ANDY JUST WANTS TO PLAY TENNIS AGAIN
ANDY MURRAY has said he would settle for being No 30 in the world as long as he is able to play tennis again. The 30-year-old has dropped to 16th in the rankings because of a chronic hip injury that kept him sidelined for almost six months and the Scot has altered his career ambitions accordingly.
Murray will this week play in his first ATP event since Wimbledon in Brisbane — a warm-up for the Australian Open, which starts on January 15 — but he no longer knows what level he is at.
‘I just want to be able to play tennis,’ said three-time Grand Slam champion Murray. ‘I don’t mind if it’s 30-in-the-world level. I would love it to be No 1-in-theworld level, but I just want to play.
‘When that’s taken away from you, you realise how important it is. I just want to get back to playing my best tennis and winning the biggest tournaments.
‘But if I don’t, I’m OK with that. I just want to keep playing. On a day-to- day basis, it’s difficult to tell exactly what my level is, when you’ve had such high expectations for quite a long time.
‘When I have a few bad days, I might feel like I’m playing really poorly, but I might still be good enough to beat top 30, top 40 in the world, which is still a really, really high level. I’ll see when I get back on the match court.’
Murray has a first-round bye at the Brisbane International and will face the winner between Ryan Harrison and Leonardo Mayer in the second round.
The former world No 1’s last tournament was Wimbledon where, clearly hindered by his hip, he lost in the quarter-finals to American Sam Querrey.
He did not appear fully recovered during a one-set exhibition defeat by Roberto Bautista Agut in Abu Dhabi on Friday, but insisted yesterday: ‘My hip feels way better than it did at Wimbledon and way better than it did at the US Open (where he pulled out two days before the start of the tournament).
‘At Wimbledon I almost made the semi- finals and I was really struggling badly. So if it is better than that then that’s positive.
‘But playing the matches and getting used to that intensity again and how you recover from a match is what is important.
‘I’m hoping I’m going to be OK, but you never know for sure until you go through it.’
Meanwhile, Serena Williams is unsure whether she will defend her title at the Australian Open.
Williams completed her first match since giving birth four months ago at the weekend, losing 6-2, 3-6 (10-5) to Jelena Ostapenko in an exhibition match in Abu Dhabi. Asked about her chances of lining up at Melbourne Park, she said: ‘I don’t know if I’m totally ready yet or not. When I come back, I definitely want to be competing for championships.
‘I don’t have anything to prove but I just want to go out there and play. I’m not done yet.’
While Murray fights to be fit for Australia, former Grand Slam champion Sue Barker yesterday said tennis needs to curtail its hellish schedule to prevent injuries to its top players.
As well as Murray, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic have both withdrawn from tournaments due to fitness issues and Stan Wawrinka is still coming back from knee surgery.
Barker is worried players will begin to pick and choose which tournaments they compete in.
‘I have to say that the men’s game, and indeed the women’s game, have both got to look at themselves for different reasons,’ the 1976 French Open champion told BBC Radio 5 Live’s
Sportsweek programme. ‘With Djokovic pulling out of that tournament in Abu Dhabi, and Nadal’s pulled out of Brisbane, Wawrinka’s postponed his recovery, you know it’s really worrying times and they keep adding on more tournaments.
‘These players are playing at such a level now, physically, that I just don’t think it’s humanly possible for them to do the calendars that they’re doing.
‘All of them are now talking about managing their career and that’s not good for the game, I think the game’s got to have a serious look at itself.’