With Wimbledon just around the corner and with the draw set to be made on Friday morning, Andy Murray is still deciding whether or not to play in his first major since Wimbledon last year. During those eleven months away from tour, Murray has learnt a lot about his body. The Brit needs wait until his body is fully recovered in order to extend his career and continue playing the sport that he loves dearly.
After today’s loss to Kyle Edmund in Eastbourne, Murray was asked how comfortable he felt on the court and how his body was holding up after playing two matches in a row for the first time in quite some time.
“It was okay. It wasn’t anything special. Conditions were a little bit trickier today with the wind, which is something generally I enjoy playing in the wind, but, you know, when you have not played so many matches, wind makes things a little bit tricky. Obviously when you’re sharp in all of your movements and timing the ball really well, you know, I have always felt I have used the wind to my advantage. Today I don’t think I dealt with it as well as Kyle did. And, yeah, I did some things okay; some things not so well.”
Many people were sceptical about Murray’s decision to play Eastbourne at first. He played a near three hour match against Nick Kyrgios in Queen’s that truly tested his body, but the former British No.1 will be pleased with the progress he has made in Eastbourne. The matches may not have been incredibly gruelling or challenging, but if Murray feels good physically after the Edmund loss, then that could influence his decision as to whether he feels he is ready to make a push at Wimbledon. The overriding feeling for Murray was that there was no danger or concern about worsening the injury, but he was simply worried about doing himself justice when it comes to playing best-of-five sets at Wimbledon.
“Yeah, I mean, it will influence it a little bit, yeah. I mean, again, obviously see how I pull up again tomorrow, but I don’t really anticipate any issues from today’s match. But, yeah, I think sort of with each match I’m trying to gain kind of information about where, you know, where I’m at physically and, you know, where my game is at. And the matches have been helpful for that. The match against Nick, again, that was a significantly longer match. You know, today was also a very different match.With Nick there was quite — I felt like I was returning, you know, huge, huge serves but also getting more free points on my serve. Today that wasn’t really the case. You know, I was kind of reacting a lot on the court rather than being the one that was sort of dictating on my own serve. They are the sort of things that when you play against the best players, which obviously Kyle is one of them just know, over the course of the match, that tells a little bit.”
“There is no risk of me playing tennis just now. That’s not really the point. It’s just whether I feel like I’m able to do myself justice. Right now — two weeks ago I practiced with Kyle and I didn’t win a game. That was the first set or points that I played in, well, in six months basically, since I was basically playing to try and get ready for the Aussie Open. You know, so I have made decent improvements the last couple of weeks and obviously have been, you know, somewhat competitive in the matches that I have played. But, you know, so I don’t just want to go out there to just play. I want to be able to compete properly. And if I don’t feel like I can do that, then I won’t play. If I do and physically I feel ready, mentally I’m in the right place, then I’ll go for it, but there’s no danger about me injuring my hip more than there would be at any other stage.”
The two matches in Eastbourne have given Murray a better understanding of what the correct decision is surrounding Wimbledon. The difference between Murray in terms of his decision-making in comparison to last year is that he is willing to be patient as he attempts to make a successful comeback onto the tour. The good thing is that Murray does not feel he can worsen the injury, but for Murray it is about whether he can compete at a high enough level over the fortnight to really justify playing the event. We have seen top tennis players think this way in the past when they make their return from injury and Murray is another one of those in a long list of players that wants to ensure that he is not just playing Wimbledon to make up the numbers.
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