Former world No.1 Andy Murray claims he can improve to being a “top-60 or 70” player with time despite being defeated in the round of 16 of the Zhuhai Championships.
Murray, who stunned the world with his win against Tennys Sandgren in the first round of the Championships despite losing to him just a few weeks before their second meeting, lost to world No.31 Alex de Minaur in the second round.
On his quest to play as many matches as possible before the end of the season, Murray wants to condition his body to play tennis at the same level he did before undergoing a hip resurfacing surgery in January this year. Murray recovered well as he returned to the courts just a few months later at the Queen’s Club Championships.
While Murray has performed well in doubles matches, his singles victories have been few. He won the first tour-level victory in the first round at Zhuhai and was hoping to keep the streak going with a win against de Minaur.
However, despite starting well in the first set and winning it, Murray failed to keep up the intensity of the match losing the last two sets to his opponent 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.
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Murray said:
“My body held up well after two pretty long matches but the rest of my body is just tired. I wasn’t able to sustain it for long enough.”
In fact, he said his body was so tired that he couldn’t practise before the match and had to take a day off. This further goes to show, that while Murray’s game has not suffered much, his lack of physical strength to sustain back-to-back matches has suffered quite a blow.
Despite such setbacks, Murray is positive that with each progressive match he will be able to get better and eventually compete at the top 60 level. For now though, Murray reckons he is still some way off from playing at a level of a top-20 player.
Following Zhuhai, Murray is scheduled to play at the China Open and hopes “to make a few improvements in the next couple of days before playing in Beijing.”
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