Joshua’s my pal, but I find it hard to watch him fight
YOU will rarely meet a more ardent boxing fan than Andy Murray, but he admits that he was barely able to watch Anthony Joshua’s triumph over Wladimir Klitschko.
Murray, who has known Joshua since they met prior to the London Olympics, has developed a problem watching boxers he personally knows when they are in the ring.
‘I found it hard to watch the other day,’ said the world tennis No 1, who had just arrived back from his tournament defeat in Barcelona on Saturday night.
‘I got in and my wife, mother and father-in-law were there and they were really pumped to watch the fight. They asked: “Are you excited?”.
‘But I shake when I watch boxing. My wife was like: “Are you okay?”. I had to leave the screen. I was unpacking my bag for 30 seconds, then I would come back and watch a little bit. I find it really difficult to watch, especially when I know someone that is in the fight.
‘With the heavyweights as well, because one punch can change the whole fight, you are kind of on edge the whole time.
‘I don’t know what it is exactly. I never used to have that and I don’t get it watching fights where I don’t know the person.
‘The first time I couldn’t actually watch the fight was when David Haye fought Klitschko. I bought the pay-per-view, a few of my friends came round and we had it on downstairs.
‘I left the room after three rounds and checked my phone for the updates to make sure he was fine. I watched the fight back after it had finished. But watching it live, I find it hard.’
Murray’s admiration for boxers — he has an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the sport — knows no bounds.
‘When you’re watching tennis and people say: “That was an amazing comeback or hugely brave”, it’s not really a comparison to what they’re doing,’ he said. ‘Both of them showed it the whole way through. Joshua was maybe just a bit fresher at the end and produced an amazing finish. Big respect to both of them.’
From his personal knowledge of Joshua, he feels confident that the 27-year-old is equipped to remain at the top for a long time.
‘When you listen to him speaking and talking about his own career, he does appear to be very grounded and very aware of where he wants to get to, and the best way of doing that,’ said Murray. ‘Just from talking to him, I get the sense he has spoken to a lot of people in a lot of different sports.
‘He went out to train with Klitschko just to understand how to run a professional training camp. If you’re willing to learn and take on board the advice of people at the top of their sports, you’re going to understand quickly that the one common thing is that you have to work hard — all the time. You can’t just be doing six months going out partying and then expect, in a couple of months, to get yourself in great shape, or only turn up for the big events. You need to be putting in a big effort all the time.
‘I met him the first time at the Olympics in 2012 before it started. We did some media stuff with all the tennis players and then had lunch with the boxers. He doesn’t seem any different to how he was then.
‘He maybe has a bit more of an aura now and is a little bit more confident. But he doesn’t appear to have changed at all, which is refreshing because a lot of the time in some sports, especially in boxing, there’s a huge drama around every fight and a lot of it might be to sell the fight.
‘He was pretty much selling out a 90,000-seat stadium without any of that and that’s because of how he is. People like to see that.’
Murray, meanwhile, believes Wimbledon will be prepared to go against his view and offer Maria Sharapova some sort of wildcard into this year’s Championships. However, he thinks the All England Club will be fervently hoping Sharapova earns an entry under her own steam.
Murray is not alone in having stated that he does not believe anyone punished for a doping offence should get privileged entries after such a ban.
Sharapova has two more events to play before the Wimbledon entry ‘cut-off’ date. She is already close to earning enough ranking points to make the qualifying event at Roehampton and probably needs a decent run in either Madrid or Rome to make the main draw without assistance.
‘I think there’s a good chance Wimbledon would give her a place in the qualifying event,’ he said yesterday at London’s Queen’s Club. ‘I don’t know exactly what they are going to do, but, from what I’ve heard, there are also a lot of logistical issues with doing that at Roehampton — if they have the infrastructure for her to play there.
‘They don’t really have any seating and I don’t know what it’s like for the media, for example. They would also have to think a lot about that.
‘I’m not sure what they will do, but I’m sure they are hoping they don’t have to make the decision.’
The situation remains hypothetical, but the Bank of England ground at Roehampton is certainly not well-equipped to cope with the circus that might ensue.
Murray was surprised to find out that some bookies were making Sharapova favourite for the French Open next month.
‘I don’t know how easy it is to come back after that long a break and then win a major,’ he said. ‘But it does appear she is playing very well already.’
On a similar subject, he expressed horror that athletes like Paula Radcliffe might lose world records because others may have set them while boosted by performance-enhancing drugs.
‘I would be pretty gone with that to be honest,’ he said. ‘A lot of the time, only the athlete and the team around them would know if they did things properly or not and I would think that would be really tough to take.’
Just ahead of a key part of the season, Murray conceded he has to improve on his relatively modest 15-5 win record of 2017, although he is not unduly alarmed. He knows there is one part of his game that has to improve.
‘Based on the last few weeks, it’s the serve,’ he added. ‘In the match against Dominic Thiem (in the Barcelona semi-finals), I was broken maybe six times. I was broken seven times in my match with (Albert) Ramos-Vinolas in Monte Carlo.’
Andy Murray will defend his Aegon Championships title against Rafael Nadal, Stan Wawrinka and Nick Kyrgios at The Queen’s Club, June 19th-25th. www.aegonchampionships.com