Murray seeks upturn to escape purgatory
Says ‘something must change’ after defeat by Zverev
hscot hreturn to fitness marred by failure to beat elite opponents
Andy Murray has never been a conventional champion, and this latest phase of his career is typically odd. Despite raising his level to the point where he can finally compete with the best once more, Murray has seen his world ranking collapse to an uninspiring No172.
How can these two contradictory statements both be true? Well, Murray’s 6-4, 7-6 loss to Alexander Zverev on Tuesday was typical of his recent form: good enough to worry his opponents, even when they are ranked in the top five, but not quite good enough actually to beat them.
And then, when Murray drops down to the second tier of events – as he did by playing the Rennes Challenger a month ago – he struggles for motivation in those spitand-sawdust surroundings. In Rennes, Murray wound up losing to Roman Safiullin, a Russian journeyman who has never broken into the top 150, in the second round.
Thus Murray is stuck in a kind of tennis purgatory, unable to assemble the results he needs to launch himself back into the top 100.
“I’m disappointed because I want to be winning these matches,” he said on Tuesday, after flinging his racket down in disgust at the defeat. “I haven’t in the last few months. Yeah, something needs to change.”
The structure of tennis mirrors the wider world. The more eminent you are, the easier it is to hang on to your privileges, thanks to seedings and preferential scheduling.
Having spent most of his career inside tennis’s gilded circle, Murray now finds himself standing outside staring in. But at least his former grandeur means he can call in a few favours. He has wild cards at for almost any event he chooses.
Murray now has a couple of
indoor ATP Tour events lined up, first in Antwerp and then Vienna, but what he really needs is a favourable draw when January’s Australian Open comes around, because the points on offer for each win at a major are up to 10 times higher than at a tournament such as Antwerp.
That is why his horrible firstround draw at the recent US Open was so damaging. Murray arrived in New York feeling fitter and more confident than at any time in the last two years, only to wind up losing to world No3 Stefanos Tsitsipas in a five-hour slugfest that launched a sport-wide debate over the ethics of bathroom breaks.
The draws have been unkind all year. Murray has lost 10 of his 21 matches on the main tour, and eight of those have been against opponents in the world’s top 13. But this is the point. The same thing will keep happening until he can start beating top-10 opposition or reach a few finals. Antwerp – where he beat Stan Wawrinka to lift the title two years ago – would be a good place to start.
At least Murray’s game is coming together. After beating hotly tipped 18-year-old Carlos Alcaraz in the second round here, he said: “I’m slowly starting to get to a level where it wouldn’t be a surprise if I won a tournament.”
Given that no one has ever tried to play singles tennis with a metal hip before, Murray could hardly have imagined that things would take 2½ years to settle in. “There’s lots of compensation happening around that area,” he said. “Like the pelvis and the lumbar spine.”
It is only since Wimbledon that he has finally been able to train with regularity and intensity. Unsurprisingly, more time on the practice court has equated to better showings on the match court.
One box remains unticked, though. As most athletes age, they find it ever more difficult to deal with pressure. Despite rarely giving up easy sets, the 34-year-old Murray is increasingly prone to losing tight ones via mental short-outs. He has played five tie-breaks since March and lost the lot – a statistic which you would never have seen from the old, flesh-and-blood Murray.
Hence Murray’s frustrated demeanour in the interview room after his grudge match with Zverev – a man he admits he doesn’t “chat a whole lot” with. As he put it: “If you’re not quite feeling your shots that well, are not sure how the ball’s going to come out of your racket sometimes, that’s when there’s a little bit of indecision. You change your mind, and that’s when the mistakes can come.”