3 time-Grand Slam Champion Andy Murray has recently confessed about the cramping issues he had in the 2022 season which would have stopped him from deeper runs in tournaments. Evening Standard, a daily newspaper based in London, took an interview with the former British World No.1 recently and this was revealed by him there.
The British has never been the same player after the hip injury almost ended his career in 2017. He came back to the tour in 2018 but had been a shadow of his previous self. Nevertheless, the former World Number 1 was moved to up Number 46 in the rankings, the best post his comeback in 2018.
Andy Murray stated the recent crampiness was the villain for his bad results this season. He didn’t expect to win titles, but he believes the cramp has made his runs short in many of the recent tournaments.
“It has been pretty downbeat with the last few months. In the last seven or eight tournaments, I had issues with cramping and I’ve never had that consistently. So, I’m extremely disappointed. I can deal with losing a tennis match as it’s a difficult sport and you sometimes don’t perform as well as you’d like but there’s no excuse for being let down physically“.
He continued how he feels about himself and his work rate, “My reflection on the last four or five months is that I’ve not been doing enough work to perform at the level I need to. I need to change that if I want to get back to the top of the game.
“There’s no guarantee I would have won those matches without the cramping, but I feel there would have been potentially deeper runs. I played quite a lot of tournaments from Wimbledon through to the end of the season. From an endurance perspective, I didn’t cope that well but there’s not been the injuries and niggles, which hasn’t been the case the last few years“.
Despite the poor results, The British World No.46 is still looking on the bright side and how he can perform better in 2023. “I’m positive about next season and the work I have to do. I’ve already started some of that and I need to empty the tank in the next six to eight weeks in the gym and on the practice court. I was 130-140 in the world at the start of the season and I’m now inside the top 50. For most players, that’s a positive year. For me, I don’t view it that way but I did make progress“.
Andy Murray- The fall of the warrior
There was a time when Andy Murray was unbeatable against any player other than the Big 3. He continued as the 4th best player in the world for 4 years between 2008 and 2011. He finally moved to Number 3 in 2012 and then later moved to No.1 in 2016 when he defeated Novak Djokovic in ATP Finals in the match for the Number 1 position.
Murray has won 14 ATP Masters-100 Titles in his prestigious career. He played in 11 Grand Slam finals and was able to win 3 including two Wimbledon titles in 2013 and 2016. The other title was in the US open 2012. He also has taken 12 players who are ranked World No.1 including 3 wins over Rafael Nadal, 4 wins over Roger Federer, and 5 wins over Novak Djokovic.
After the hip injury occurred in 2016, he was not able to go past round 3 in any of the Masters-1000 tournaments or Grand Slams he played.2022 season record stands at 29-20 with No ATP titles to his name.
With a new generation of 2000s players like Carlos Alcaraz and Holger Rune running the show at the top of the tennis world, Andy Murray’s chances of winning big titles seem to be not possible at all.
