Andy Murray on his passion for tennis: "Love its simplicity and at the same time its complexity"
Andy Murray has been playing with an artificial hip since 2019 - but how has it affected his game?
by Florian Goosmann
last edit: Oct 19, 2021, 11:21 am
Everything may not yet pay off in the ATP ranking, but Andy Murray is to be expected again. Most recently he celebrated respectable successes against Ugo Humbert and Carlos Alcaraz, at the US Open he forced Stefanos Tsitsipas over five sets, and the loss to Alexander Zverev in Indian Wells? Was actually avoidable. Murray complained about his lack of consistency and the feeling of not making the right decisions in the crucial moments .
Bitter for the ex-world number one: Despite his rising form, Murray slipped around 50 places in the ATP ranking this week, only making number 172 after he lost the points from the tournament victory in Antwerp in 2019. Murray is still dependent on wildcards, also for the ATP tournament in Vienna, where he maintains a perfect balance: two participations, two tournament wins, in 2014 and 2016.
Andy Murray with a declaration of love to Vienna
"Vienna is such a beautiful city, one of my favorite places on the tour," Murray said in an interview with Der Standard . "The last time I competed in Vienna, I played almost my best tennis. It would be nice if I could do that again." It was a long time ago: In 2016, after a great fall, Murray became number 1 in the world for the first time, partly because of his victory at the Erste Bank Open.
The pimped up hips, it demanded a lot from the Scot. He is currently playing painlessly here, as he recently assured, but minor problems in other parts of the body have made it impossible to get started. Especially since Murray also had to adjust his game a bit. Once he had confessed to having thought about a new direction, but in the end he stayed the same. "The serve was probably the most affected," explained Murray now, "I couldn't climb as high as I was used to. As a result, I lost a lot of power." After Wimbledon he changed little things, "that feels good. Since then, I've been winning significantly more points on my own serve."
Murray: "I'm driven by competition"
In general, Murray sees his tight tournament schedule in autumn this year as preparation for the Australian Open. Motivation problems? Are alien to him anyway. "It has always been easy for me to get up early and start the day - even when my hips were over. I'm driven by competition, that spurs me on," he says.
And poured his love for tennis into beautiful words. "Tennis is still my passion. I love its simplicity and its complexity at the same time. For me, tennis means a battle of mind and body. Every game is different from the others, which makes it attractive for all age groups."
Today Murray can practice his passion again: In Antwerp he will play his first round match against Frances Tiafoe from 6.30 p.m. today.