Former World No 1 Andy Murray has admitted that he hadn’t worked as hard as he had to compete at the highest level.
Murray played only seven matches in this truncated season, with one notable win over Alexander Zverev at the Cincinnati Masters. But the Brit lost two successive first round matches – at the French Open and then at the Cologne ATP – to finish his season with a whimper.
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“I got on that machine that measures your body fat after the French Open and it wasn’t good in comparison to what I’d done when I was younger,” Murray, 33, told former pro Daniela Hantuchova during a video chat.
Murray hasn’t been able to get back to his best since a recurring hip injury and undergoing two surgeries.
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“There have definitely been times over the last few years where I lost that, just because of injuries and stuff. And I haven’t been working as hard as I needed to,” said Murray, who has dropped to 122 in the singles rankings.
So @petercrouch challenged me a while back to a game of tennis, apparently he used to be quite good. Not sure he was quite prepared for padel tennis though… He tried every trick in the book to try and get the win… tune in to @BBCCiN tonight to find out how he got on…. pic.twitter.com/1JIOGJSZ8t
— Andy Murray (@andy_murray) November 13, 2020
“The one thing that hasn’t got to the level that it used to be yet is the speed and that’s the one thing that maybe won’t get to where it was. But all the other things like the strength and the endurance, they can.
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“I may never get back to being number one in the world but I want to do everything that I did when I was number one in the world to give myself the best chance to see what I can achieve.”
Meanwhile his former coach Daniel Vallverdu, who started working with Stan Wawrinka recently, said that Murray could still compete at a very high level.
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“It’s pretty amazing what he’s doing, coming back from the type of injury that he’s had,” Vallverdu said in an interview with Reuters. “We’re all very lucky to still be able to have him around and not only in the locker room but to see him compete.”
Vallverdu was part of Murray’s entourage when he won the gold medal for Great Britain at the London Olympics, his first major at the 2012 US Open and the 2013 Wimbledon triumph.
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“As long as he’s able to keep himself fit and I wouldn’t say pain-free but with not so much pain and physically fit, I wouldn’t be surprised if Andy has some very good results next year,” Vallverdu said.
