Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
BREAK POINT MURRAY
Andy needs to find form or he could lose his No.1 ranking at Wimbledon
ANDY MURRAY risks losing his No.1 ranking at Wimbledon unless he quickly finds the form which took him to the top of the world.
The Olympic champion was unbeatable on a 28match winning run at the end of last year which saw him overtake big rival Novak Djokovic. But after his latest crushing clay-court defeat – by Fabio Fognini at the Rome Masters – the Scot will reunite with head coach Ivan Lendl in Paris on Monday to try and re- boot his season over the next five weeks. Murray, who celebrated his 30th birthday this week, has struggled physically and mentally in recent months. His camp insist there are no lingering issues with the shingles or elbow injury which affected him earlier in the year, but there is a growing realisation that Murray did not take a long-enough break in his off-season after such a gruelling end to the last campaign. The British No.1 con- fessed he struggled to raise his game for months after claiming his first Wimbledon title in 2013 and the same appears to be happening following his rise to No.1 in the game. Since winning in Dubai at the start of March, he has lost half of his 10 matches and has won only four times in four claycourt events. Murray said: “I’m just not playing good tennis and need to try to work out how to turn it around. “The last couple of weeks have definitely been a struggle and a long way from where I’d like to be. “My movement the last two weeks has not been good. My movement has been a big help over the last couple of years but in the last couple of weeks it’s been a problem.” His former coach and Sky Sports commentator Mark Petchey said: “It is a combination of things. He is lacking pace off the ground, he is lacking some serious pace with the second serve. Could that be because of his elbow problem? It all fits together like a complicated jigsaw and, at the moment, the pieces are out of alignment.” Instead of being a guest of honour at last night’s Italian Cup final, Murray headed home to Surrey before his return to Roland-garros, where he was runner-up last year. “There is a little bit of soul-searching coming up – there is no question about that,” said Petchey. Murray’s No.1 ranking is assured for the next few weeks but he has 3,700 points to defend in his next three tournaments – at Roland-garros, Queen’s Club and Wimbledon. Before Rome, Djokovic had cut the lead back to 3,515 points and Murray will lose the points for winning in the Italian capital last year. The Serb will need to defend his title in Paris but collected only 90 points at Wimbledon last year after his shock third-round defeat by Sam Querrey so can make a big dent in Murray’s position. Wimbledon was the start of a slump for Djokovic after completing his career Grand Slam – and Murray’s form has suffered similarly since achieving his lifetime goal of becoming world No.1. Now he needs Lendl more than ever to help him rediscover that winning feeling.