Why Murray Is Sometimes ‘Surprised’ He’s Still Competing With World’s Best

There is no disputing that Andy Murray has suffered his fair share of disappointing defeats since undergoing his most recent hip surgery in 2019. Coming close but ultimately falling short of big wins like the former World No. 1 did at Wimbledon against Stefanos Tsitsipas does not make it any easier.

But outside of the results, Murray is proving to himself and the world that win or lose, his level is still close to the very best players in the world. For someone competing at 36 with a metal hip, that is a victory in itself.

“I’m surprised by that sometimes, because I know how difficult it is for me physically now,” Murray, who is competing this week at the Mubadala Citi DC Open, exclusively told ATPTour.com. “That my game is still able to match up and compete with the best players, yeah, I’m surprised by it.”

Murray is No. 42 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings and notably won two five-setters at this year’s Australian Open against tough opponents in Matteo Berrettini and Thanasi Kokkinakis. But the Scot is still working hard to not just compete against the best, but beat them on the world’s biggest stages.

“It’s hard because ultimately, I would say in maybe certain events or certain periods of the year, it’s easier to not ignore the results, but not place too much emphasis on them,” Murray said. “But obviously when you play in the major competitions, they are the ones that ultimately you want to perform well in and that you will get judged on and at Wimbledon, it really wasn’t like I played a really bad match against Tsitsipas. So when I reflect on that tournament, I’m disappointed with the result.

“But there’s still signs for me there that from a tennis perspective I can still compete and win against the top players in the world, even though I lost that match. If I’d gone out and lost 6-1, 6-1, 6-1, I played terribly and lost comfortably, the stage of my career that I’m at, maybe I’d start to look at things a bit differently.”

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^{Photo: Peter Staples}
Murray has reached World No. 1, won three major titles and accomplished plenty more in his history-making career. But despite the obstacles he has faced, the 46-time tour-level champion continues to search for ways to continue raising his level.

“Obviously, the game always keeps evolving, keeps improving, and you need to do that as well as a player. And I enjoy that. It’s one of the things that motivates me — trying to improve — whether that’s on the court or in the gym,” Murray said. “Like seeing my scores in the gym are improving or that my speed is getting a bit better, or [that] I’m serving at a slightly higher percentage or harder, I love that. It’s one of the great things about tennis in that that’s kind of down to me and my team. I can make that those changes if I want to, and if I’m willing to put the work in, and I still enjoy that.”

That has still been the case in recent weeks. During the grass season, Murray spoke about tweaks he was making to his serve.

Competing this week in Washington brings back memories of his debut at the event in 2006, when he also made distinct changes to his game.

“Brad Gilbert’s here this week and the first week that we spent together was here when he started coaching me. We were chatting about it the other day, I remember the first match that I played here, I played against Ramon Delgado. And they didn’t use to play before like four o’clock, because of the conditions,” Murray said. “We were the first match on at four and I remember it just being brutally hot. I also played a match against Feli Lopez that year, and we got rained off because of thunderstorms and between the thunderstorms and going back out, I changed [my approach].

“A lot of people talk about the way that I returned now, I have quite a distinctive jump. And that started in that match, because Brad was saying I was standing too close to the baseline to return serve. So I had to go further back, which I did when we went back out there. And I instinctively started sort of jumping forwards before the return.”

Murray made the final that year in Washington and will hope for another deep run this week in the United States’ capital. The 15th seed, who will open against Brandon Nakashima or Aleksandar Vukic, is looking forward to making a good start to his hard-court season after working hard on his fitness to prepare for the hot and humid conditions this swing presents.

“I think a challenge for all of the players is the conditions. You’ve gone from playing across the grass season where physically it’s pretty straightforward in terms of you’re not getting any extreme weather, the points tend to be a little bit shorter, it’s a bit easier on the body,” Murray said. “Whereas, I really feel like here that the physical side, if you’ve taken care of that and you’re in good shape, physically, it can have big benefits going into this stretch of tournaments.

“So I kind of look forward to the preparation of it. I did a lot of heat training in heat chambers and bike sessions in pretty brutal conditions to try and prepare myself for it. It doesn’t make going on the court that much easier, but if you’ve done that work and your opponent hasn’t, it can give you that little physical, psychological edge and I like that.”