Murray Looking For Improvement In Dubai

It can be hard to recall now, after so many months of Andy Murray playing so well on the ATP World Tour, but the Scot did experience a down period during his career season of 2016.

The dip happened right about now, 12 months ago, after the Australian Open and before the European clay-court season began in April. Murray won only two ATP World Tour matches during the two-month span, losing in the third round of both the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells and the Miami Open presented by Itau.

This year, Murray is playing the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships before heading into March Madness. He’s hoping the tournament helps him enjoy a better stretch than he experienced a year ago.

“I want to avoid that this year. I want to do much better over this period than I did last year,” Murray said during his pre-tournament press conference.

Forget tennis for a moment. The 29-year-old Murray was focused on something much more basic earlier this month: his health. Murray was diagnosed with shingles after returning from the Australian Open. He didn’t notice anything in Melbourne but saw a doctor upon coming home and had to rest for about two weeks.

“I just had to go easy for a little while,” he said. “But I’m fine now and have been training flat out for the last two and a half weeks really, so I feel good.”

It was a much different Australian Open than Murray had become accustomed to over the years. The five-time finalist fell in the fourth round to German Mischa Zverev, who served-and-volleyed his way to a career-best quarter-final finish in Melbourne.

Murray, however, said he’s gotten over the early defeat and has learned from the match. “I was disappointed obviously with the loss and I feel like I could have done some things a bit better,” he said. “I’m trying to get back to playing good tennis here and hopefully I can.”

Despite his earliest Melbourne exit since 2009, also fourth round, the Scot easily remained No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Rankings. He currently leads World No. 2 Novak Djokovic by more than 1,700 points. “I want to try and stay there. I’m motivated to try and do that,” Murray said.

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The Brit, who has never won the Dubai title, is the top seed in his sixth appearance at the ATP World Tour 500 tournament. He opens against 33-year-old Malek Jaziri of Tunisia.

Murray and Jaziri, No. 47 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, have never played each other. Jaziri is also making his sixth appearance at the event, with his best finish coming in 2014 when he reached the quarter-finals.

“I’m not looking far ahead. I know Malek fairly well,” Murray said. “I’ve seen him play. He’s very talented. He plays with a lot of slice backhands. He’s quite aggressive on his forehand… I think he quite likes the conditions here so I’m concentrating on that one.”