Life will not change if I lose No. 1 spot: Murray
dubai — Andy Murray’s greatest achievement was the battle he won in his own mind.
Despite the phenomenal success of his three great adversaries — Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic — the Scot never gave up hope as he ended the Britain’s 76-year Grand Slam drought and became the only man in the history of the game to defend an Olympic gold in tennis.
It’s not surprising then to hear him say that he would not lose sleep if the Novaks or the Rafas dethrone him as the world number one player.
“I don’t need to stay at number one, I mean nothing bad happens if I become the number two,” Murray replied when asked if there was pressure on him to hold on to that coveted spot.
“My life is okay, you know, no one dies if I lose the number one ranking. But yeah I want to try to stay there,” the two-time Wimbledon champion told reporters in Dubai on Sunday.
After achieving some incredible things in the last six months of 2016 (he won the his second Wimbledon title, took the Olympic gold and the world number one ranking), Murray suffered a shock defeat at the fourth round of the Australian Open against German journeyman Mischa Zverev.
“Obviously I was disappointed. But that was at end of a very long six-seven months. Yeah it’s unfortunate that a match like that happens in a Slam. If I can go back, I wish that had happened somewhere else in that six-seven months,” he said.
“But if that happened (somewhere else) in that six-seven months, I would not have got to the number one position last year. So you know when it happens you are disappointed obviously it was a big loss and I feel like I could have done something a bit better. I didn’t play particularly well at the Australian Open. I started to play better as it went on but when I look back at the last six-seven months I see lot of things that I have done well.
My life is okay, you know, no one dies if I lose the number one ranking Andy Murray
“I could have done things a bit differently maybe in the last couple of months. Now I look forward, I mean, the Australian Open finished five weeks ago, I can’t keep on thinking about that match anymore. I have to try to get back to tennis here.”
Here in Dubai, the world’s topranked player will face the top player from the Arab world -- Tunisian Malek Jaziri.
“I know Malek fairly well but I have never played against him and I have never practiced with him. But I have seen him play. He is very talented. He knows these conditions very well, so I am concentrating on that match,” said Murray, the 2012 Dubai finalist.
rituraj@khaleejtimes.com