Murray not ready to be put out to pasture
Andy eyes Good Life on grass with Wimbers in his sights
ANDY MURRAY wants to form a champion mixed doubles alliance with Emma Raducanu at Wimbledon – but admits their singles campaigns will take priority.
I can guarantee I’ll give it 100 per cent to have a good run ANDY MURRAY ON HIS GRASS COURT TARGETS
The last king of Scotland i nsi sts he has “high expectations and lofty goals” on grass this year.
And he wants to improve his world ranking enough to make the seeds when he returns to the strawberry fields of SW19 next month.
A double act featuring the two-time Wimbledon champ and US Open queen Raducanu would be the ultimate crowd pleaser at Wimbers.
But as he launched his grass court season with a taste of the Good Life at the Surbiton Trophy, easing to a 6-2 6-1 win in 57 minute s against Austrian left-hander Jurij Rodionov with seconds to spare before the heavens opened, His Lordship of Dunblane looked in good order.
He will need a good run, either in Stuttgart next week or at Queen’s Club in mid-June, to rise from No. 67 in he rankings and make the seeds at Wimbledon, avoiding a potential hospital pass against Novak Djokovic or Rafael Nadal in the early rounds.
On a blustery afternoon at the Surbiton Rackets and Fitness Club, he played with the urgency of a man in a hurry to regain a top-30 slot.
He said: “I have high expectations of myself and lofty goals for the coming weeks, which I discuss with my team regularly.
“I ’m not going to share them now but I’ve trained hard, I feel grass is my best surface and I’ve prepared as best as I can.
“I can’t control my results or performances at Wimbledon right now but I can control my attitude on the court and I can guarantee I’ll give it 100 per cent to have a good run.”
Murray’s tunnel vision is focused on reaching the later stages at Wimbledon but he admits hooking up with Raducanu in the mixed doubles was discussed last year – and he would like it to happen to one day.
He revealed: “Last year we talked about it but we both ended up doing well in the singles. I would love to play with Emma at some stage. I’m sure we will both focus on having good runs in the singles but, yeah, I’d love to do that.”
Surbiton is best-known, to viewers of a certain age, as the setting for 70s sitcom The Good Life.
Murray was never likely to turn the true surface here into a vegetable patch. But his game was in decent working order and the 300 or so spectators appreciated him making short work of world No.127 Rodionov.