“This is physically the best I’ve felt in a while” Andy Murray reacts after 3rd round defeat at the Indian Wells 2021, drop hints about future

“This is physically the best I’ve felt in a while” Andy Murray reacts after 3rd round defeat at the Indian Wells 2021, drop hints about future

Andy Murray

World No. 121 Andy Murray played some of his best tennis in recent times as he battled at the ongoing Indian Wells 2021. The Brit who entered the main-draw through a wildcard, gave glimpses of vintage Andy during his three round stay at the desert. Murray started with a straight-set win over Adrian Mannarino in Round 1 and won the match 6-3, 6-2.

Up next for him was Spanish teenager Carlos Alcaraz who has been making headlines for his superb play at such a young age having won an ATP title already and recently became the youngest quarter-finalist at the US Open in the Open Era when he made it to the last-8 at the 2021 US Open. Murray was not the favourite for the tie yet managed to win it 5-7, 6-3, 6-2 in a gritty display.

Murray was up against World No. 4 and 3rd seed Alexander Zverev in the 3rd round where the German won the match 6-4, 7-6(4) in over 2 hours in one of the best matches so far at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. While the scoreline did suggest a good win for Zverev, Murray was sensational as well and was rather agitated and disappointed on losing after the shift he put in.

“The positive for me to take from it is I obviously had opportunities again. I mean, I guess that’s positive. I didn’t feel like I played a great match and still had chances, so that’s positive. But yeah, I’m disappointed because I obviously want to be winning these matches. I haven’t in the past few months.

“This is physically the best I’ve felt in a while, but I’m sort of battling my game a little bit. The consistency isn’t there and the decision making is not great in the important moments,” said Murray reviewing his match against Sascha.

“I’m not sure I deserve to play in that team” says Andy Murray on the upcoming Davis Cup

Andy Murray
Andy Murray

One of Murray’s greatest achievement apart from his Grand Slam titles and twin Olympics Singles Gold was to bring the Davis Cup back to Britain ending a draught of 79 years. Murray helped Britain win the 2015 Davis Cup and of the possible 12 points, Murray had his hands in winning 11 of them, one of the dominating performance in the history of Davis Cup.

The Brit however believes he does not deserve a spot this year in the British team and he would rather use that time to relax his body and spend time with family since the bio-bubble restrictions have limited family time for players.

“I also don’t feel right now I would be playing, either. Obviously that would be up to Leon, but I’m not sure I deserve to play in that team. Cam [Norrie] and Dan [Evans] have had a great year. Liam Broady’s in and around the top 100 now and we’ve got very strong doubles as well,” said Murray while speaking to BBC.

“Right now, I’m not planning on playing the Davis Cup and with the late finish to it, and early departure to Australia, with my schedule between now and the end of the year, I am going to have to rest and take a break and give my body a chance to breathe.

“And I want to make sure in the off season I get to spend as much time with my family as I can because I have been away from that recently and that will be case when I go to Australia as well,” concluded Murray.

With the Davis Cup scheduled to end in the first week of December, that gives players only 3 weeks before they travel for the Australian Open to undergo quarantine as Australia is still following strict protocols in the ongoing battle against Covid-19.

Also Read: Victorian Mayor issues ultimatum for tennis players ahead of the 2022 Australian Open