{"id":10241,"date":"2018-10-03T08:07:07","date_gmt":"2018-10-03T12:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=10241"},"modified":"2018-10-03T08:07:07","modified_gmt":"2018-10-03T12:07:07","slug":"andy-murray-has-marathon-run-10241","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2018\/10\/03\/andy-murray-has-marathon-run-10241\/","title":{"rendered":"Andy Murray has a marathon to run to regain status"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI\u2019m on my own, and the road is long\/I\u2019ll do what it takes, just finding a place\/Where I Belong\/Being down, not out, being lost, not found\/No words, no sound on this lonely track\/The wind can roar, the storm can rage\/It\u2019s all the same, I\u2019m not turning back.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

These lyrics to British boy band The Wanted\u2019s song Where I Belong<\/em> essentially capture a person\u2019s eagerness to punch over his\/her weight and overcome the struggles that lie in the way. Most of us can recognize with the gist of the song \u2013 to keep your beliefs strong when going through trying times. Take the case of British superstar Andy Murray. The huge fall from grace has hit him hard, but what\u2019s important is his attitude in this entire situation.<\/p>\n

If there\u2019s a timeline to Murray\u2019s struggles with injury – especially the hip \u2013 it won\u2019t be a particularly satisfying view. Be it for a short period or a slightly longer one, injuries have always affected him but never were the key cause of discussion. But the epic run that he had in 2016 to finally become the best men\u2019s player on the planet, drained him completely. He never found that rhythm again and steadily gave in to the hip injury by mid-2017. The more he played, the harder he fought, and the more he struggled to resist an injury to an already-fragile hip.<\/p>\n

Cut to 2018. Andy Murray played just 6 tournaments the entire season and called it quits, aiming for an early 2019 comeback. While his season ended one week before its scheduled date because of an ankle injury, it\u2019s the hip that\u2019s still the matter of concern. His loss to Fernando Verdasco at Shenzhen Open, right after beating David Goffin, was probably a blessing in disguise. Granted, he couldn\u2019t participate in Beijing, but he\u2019ll get a much-needed break and it\u2019ll be surprising if he doesn\u2019t make full use of it.<\/p>\n

After losing the #1 ranking just before 2017 US Open<\/a>, he dropped outside of top 800 following his withdrawal from 2018 Wimbledon. Road to regain physical fitness for Andy Murray has been a long and tedious journey. But, his withdrawal from the China Open in Beijing shows that it\u2019s not enough. There\u2019s still a lot for him to do on the fitness part. And, especially since his style of play is so taxing on the body, he knows quite well that an affected hip and ankle won\u2019t let him play his A-game ever, if not cured.<\/p>\n

Tennis, especially the men\u2019s tour, has seen many a hip injury end great careers. Surgeries have sometimes gone the wrong way; while on other occasions, a recurring problem has bugged an entire career. When clay great Gustavo Kuerten suffered a similar fate, he was 25. He had to operate on his hip, and when that happened, his career saw a steady but untimely descent. From being just the fourth man in Open Era to win three Roland Garros<\/a> singles titles at the age of 25, he never reached another Grand Slam semifinal again. But, because he was still very young \u2013 thus physically more durable to operations and pain \u2013 he could still continue for a few more years, albeit as a mere shadow of his former self.<\/p>\n

The primary difference between Kuerten and Murray\u2019s case is the Brit\u2019s age. Andy is 31 now, will be 32 next year. At this point in his career, and with the kind of career he has amassed, he possibly couldn\u2019t care less about his ranking. If he did, he would\u2019ve played more tournaments. But, as his mother Judy Murray said, he\u2019s pretty desperate to get his top fitness back, and he wouldn\u2019t ever risk it playing an ATP 500. He knows his body is fragile to injuries now more than ever, and if he plays ignoring his physical shortcomings, he\u2019ll have to pay for it heavily.<\/p>\n

Physical conditioning following any injury is the most important aspect of getting back to complete fitness. Andy Murray\u2019s conditioning regarding his hip problems is still a work in progress, and the timeout can only help him to extend his career. That and a smarter schedule planning is the solution to a prolonged career. Roger Federer is probably the biggest example (and an active one, at that) to follow in such cases. The Swiss legend\u2019s schedule management throughout his career has been an enviable act for the ones that suffer heavy injuries. If Murray follows suit, it\u2019ll be a good decision for this final stage of his career.<\/p>\n

By his own admission, Andy Murray is drawing inspiration from Argentine compatriot Juan Martin del Potro and his eternal battle with injuries. Del Potro has suffered two career-threatening injuries this decade which resulted in him sitting out for three years in total, but he\u2019s never left the battleground until he\u2019s won. And he has. Currently enjoying a career-best season ranking wise, Del Potro has given the finger to his injury troubles. It\u2019s no wonder that Murray will want to replicate the same.<\/p>\n

A sportsperson\u2019s journey is always a marathon. You sprint, and you\u2019ll lose in the long run. It might get your short-term aim fulfilled, but it\u2019s the wise ones that outlast their peers. Whether he will succumb to this recrudescing hip trouble, will be an intriguing story for the 2019 tennis season. But, working with a rehab specialist in Philadelphia, Andy Murray will take each day as it comes, and even a 0.001% improvement on Day 1 can lead to him regaining full fitness by 2019. It\u2019s his marathon to run, and it\u2019s his race to win. Being the fighter that he is, he will be raring to get back to where he belonged prior to the injury.<\/p>\n

Main Photo from Getty<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI\u2019m on my own, and the road is long\/I\u2019ll do what it takes, just finding a place\/Where I Belong\/Being down, not out, being lost, not found\/No words, no sound on this lonely track\/The wind can roar, the storm can rage\/It\u2019s all the same, I\u2019m not turning back.\u201d These lyrics to British boy band The Wanted\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2681,"featured_media":5657,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2],"tags":[16,2107,230,352,3929,84,114],"class_list":["post-10241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-atp","category-featured","tag-andy-murray","tag-atp-shenzhen","tag-david-goffin","tag-fernando-verdasco","tag-gustavo-kuerten","tag-juan-martin-del-potro","tag-roger-federer"],"modified_by":"Yesh Ginsburg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2681"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}