Murray will end season early to focus on training
Andy Murray has clarified his plans for the rest of the year, explaining that he will play just two more tour events – in Shenzhen next week and Beijing the week after that – before shutting his season down.
This should not, however, be taken as evidence that he has suffered a setback in training.
Murray sounded upbeat in a video post released on his Facebook page at noon yesterday, during which he spoke of encouraging progress in his arduous road back from the hip surgery he had in January. “I’m obviously over in China just now,” Murray told his fans on Facebook. “I’m competing this week in Shenzhen and then next week in Beijing before calling an end to the year competitively. I’m going to miss the last couple of tournaments of the year, because I’ve decided along with my team that I need a long period of training and reconditioning to get myself in the best shape possible for the beginning of the 2019 season and to get myself back competing for the biggest tournaments again.
“So unfortunately I won’t be competing after Asia, but I am looking forward to getting some hard training done and making some more improvements. It’s been really positive the last few months. I feel like I have made big strides forward in the rehab from the hip surgery.”
Murray has played only nine competitive matches during the 2018 season to date, winning five and losing four. The limp that dogged him throughout last year has not completely resolved itself. But he showed hints of his old self at last month’s US Open, particularly in the fourth set of a feisty match with Fernando Verdasco.
During that tournament, Murray also revealed that he had been spending seven hours a day rehabilitating his troublesome hip. Rather than returning home to Surrey after his secondround exit, he flew back to Philadelphia, which became a summer training base.
After five tournaments this year, Murray has lifted his ranking to No 308 in the world. He will open his Shenzhen campaign against Zhizhen Zhang, a Chinese wild card who stands at No 341 on the ladder. A win would earn him a meeting with top seed David Goffin in the round of 16.