If Murray does not quit, there’d be fears for his mental health
Nadal concern as rival admits talking to psychologists about coping with end of his career
AS PART of his tribute to Andy Murray, Rafael Nadal yesterday stated that walking away from the game was perhaps the best thing for his mental, as well as physical health.
But another of Spain’s tennis armada was being slightly more reserved with his comments. Roberto Bautista Agut, the world No23, is the man facing the awkward task of playing Murray in what the Scot is billing as potentially his last match.
Ask any tennis player what it is like to play a part-injured opponent and, if they are honest, they will tell you that it can prove a distraction and an uncomfortable experience.
When the 30 year-old Spani ard faces Murray at the Australian Open ( 7am UK time tomorrow) he will find himself under pressure and thrust into the role of favourite, despite not having won a set off him in their three previous meetings.
All on one of Murray’s favourite courts, t oo, t he Melbourne Arena, the third largest stadium at this venue. No wonder Bautista Agut was trying to be cautious yesterday when asked what shape he expected his opponent to be in, saying: ‘We know Andy, we know he will give it 100 per cent.’
Murray can also go out there and play as freely as his body will allow, carried along by the torrent of love he has felt since his emotional press conference on Friday.
The Scot admits that it might all be a bit ‘weird’, especially at a tournament where he has been extremely consistent, making the quarter-finals or better seven times.
‘ Lots of things have been weird,’ he said. ‘I know I’ve got no chance of winning the tournament and I know most likely I’m going to lose in the first round here.
‘I’m not happy about that, and because of the way the last six months of competing has gone it’s going to uncomfortable and stuff.
‘But if it is my last match I want to try and enjoy it and enjoy the whole experience, which is maybe something during my career that I’ve not done because it’s always been focused on tactics and winning and finding a way.
‘ Whereas coming in here, my mindset feels very different. I was saying to my team, the thing that’s difficult is I’m not practising anywhere near as much as I used to because I can’t, so if I have bad practice I can’t just go back on the court and work on my serve or my movement or whatever — I can’t do that anymore.’
Will this really be his last match? It is possible, but those close to Murray believe that he will do everything he can to make possible one more appearance at Wimbledon before he retires.
For one so focused and determined the 31- year- old Scot has always been prone to changing his mind so you would not rule anything out.
He is still officially entered for tournaments in Montpellier, Marseilles and Dubai during February, but plans for the next few months will surely hinge on how he acquits himself here.
Murray concedes that his mind has been in something of a fog in recent months when it comes to mapping things out. He has been developing commercial and other interests since he first got injured, such as his Scottish hotel, his mentoring/ management agency and business investments. But they have lost their allure as he has been confronted with his tennis mortality.
‘ It’s i nteresting because once I’d started thinking about stopping, that it was a possibility that I wasn’t going to be playing much longer, all of the things that I thought that I would quite like to do, I have zero interest in doing right now,’ he said. ‘I have no motivation to do anything else at the moment. This [tennis] is what I want to do.
‘Thinking about what I do when I finish playing, and rushing into decisions with that — from speaking to psychologists that is the worst thing I should be doing. It’s going to take time for me to deal with it and I need a bit of time to kind of get over it, and then kind of know what my next steps are going to be, or what I do after tennis.’
Yesterday he was practising with Grigor Dimitrov, again showing that he has not lost the art of striking the ball sweetly. That is not the probl em, more t ri cky is t hat Bautista Agut gets lots of balls back and will run him hard.
His mother, Judy, had flown in from Sydney, where brother Jamie yesterday won the doubles title in the ATP event. While lending moral support, she did not want to comment on her son’s impending retirement, which continued to be a major topic of conversation around Melbourne Park.
Murray might not have realised how popular he was in the locker room until now, but he has enjoyed a long and genuinely friendly relationship with Nadal, who was useful in putting his rival’s misfortune into perspective.
‘Probably he is fighting to keep going for a long time,’ said the world No 2. ‘ If he doesn’t feel the whole thing can get better probably he does the best thing for his mental health.
‘But that’s life. It seems like he has not had a very long career because today players are going that long. But he’s 31. Ten years ago if he retired at 31 we would say he had a great and long career.
‘All the best to him, tomorrow there will be another one. We are not 20 any more, our generation is in the 30s and these things happen.’
Nadal will cl early miss someone who has been a constant since childhood. ‘ We shared competitions at Under13,’ he said. ‘We know each other since we were kids. When he was a kid he was a little bit of a bad boy.
‘At the end of the day you appreciate your rivals because you share a lot of important moments. When he puts everything in balance the positive things weigh much heavier than the negatives, even if the end is not the way he dreamed about.’
Novak Djokovic admitted surprise at the development, which came after he had overwhelmed Murray in a practice match on Thursday.
‘ It’s quite a shock for me honestly because we are the same age, the same generation,’ said Djokovic at a sponsor’s event in Melbourne. ‘It’s quite sad to see him going through what he has been going through — as someone who has been through a major injury with my elbow in the last couple of years, I can definitely empathise with him.’