Andy Murray faces a potentially nerve-sapping, muscle-stretching period at the end of the tennis season and an end of season dilemma. Unlike last year though, this is not in a bid to qualify for the end of season World Tour Finals held in London at the 02 arena. Murray qualified much earlier in the year, and was the second player to do so, for the usual end of season tournament for the top eight ATP players, giving plenty of time to contemplate his upcoming dilemma. Giving up Shenzhen, Vienna & Valencia, Murray will miss the three titles he picked up in the six week rush to qualify last year and has Shanghai, Paris, and London as his last three tournaments this year. Normally, this would not provide any dilemma for the World #3 as he relishes playing this last event although he has never won it. The difference this year is of course that exactly one week after the World Tour Finals and the hard court, the Brits have to prepare for battle with Belgium on clay in the Davis Cup final, the first time they have been in the final since the 1970s.
Andy Murray faces end of season dilemma
Back trouble
At the end of the semifinal held in Glasgow (at the same arena as the first round home tie), in which Murray helped the Brits to the first Davis Cup final since 1978 by playing on all three days, the World #3 hinted that he would look to skip the World Tour Finals to give himself extra time to prepare for the surface change to indoor clay that the Belgians have chosen. Murray admitted in press that his back had been troubling him during the semifinal, but insisted it was not a re-occurrence of the problem that had resulted in him undergoing surgery at the end of 2013.
Penalties
Hearing the Brit say he may opt out of the end of year tour finals in London, Chris Kermode waded into the debate. He stated that once qualified a player must take part in the tournament unless they are injured, hinting too that there would be financial and point penalties and a potential ban for players that skipped if not genuinely injured. Although this is the rule, the opportunity for Murray and his teammates to lay yet another Fred Perry ghost to rest by winning the Davis Cup is certainly the top priority for the World #3. Perhaps Kermode should cast his mind back to last year when Roger Federer played the round robin and semifinal rounds, then pulled out of the final (citing a back problem) leaving the tournament in chaos. Who did the tournament director get on the telephone to? And who agreed to drop everything and drive to the venue to play exhibition matches against Novak Djokovic then a doubles match with John MacEnroe, Tim Henman, and Pat Cash? Not only did Murray do this, he waived the appearance fee he could have charged. Coming back to the place where only days earlier he had gone out to an embarrassingly one sided scoreline against Federer, even making a joke about having tired the Swiss out took courage and was lauded at the time by Kermode and all involved in the event. Roll forward to this year, when wanting to concentrate on something that would make British history again, it seems that Kermode is only thinking of the rules and not giving the World #3 a break. Of course rules are rules; perhaps it is time to arrange to bend them slightly. Although if done for one player, this would then set a precedent that others would then want in on.
Consequences
What would be the consequences of Murray playing the World Tour Finals and then having to change surface quickly? This is not good for a player’s body to change this quickly, which is why there is usually a week or two gap between the change of surface ( Roland Garros – clay, Wimbledon – grass), Team Murray however, know the Brit well and will be able to gear his recovery and training to cope with such a short turnaround. Of course the Belgians will be hoping that Murray does not adapt quickly to the surface change and that he does play in London the week before. If Murray does skip the World Tour Finals, the Belgians will find themselves facing a very fresh Murray and not what they are hoping for of a slightly tired one. USA tried to clay court tactic in round one in 2014 as it is official the worst surface for Murray, although with two clay court titles to his name this year (one being a Masters) that surely is changing.
Whatever happens the end of the season has got a whole more exciting.
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