World No.2 Andy Murray has told the Daily Mail that he is prepared to spoil his Australian Open chances if his wife goes into premature labour.
Murray and his wife Kim are expecting their first child in February, straight after the first Grand Slam of the year which takes place between January 18th-31st. During an interview with Sportsmail from his training camp in Dubai, Murray expressed no hesitation in risking Grand Slam success to be with his wife.
“I’d go home. For sure, yes,” Murray told the Daily Mail.
“It’s obviously important. I want to make sure at the beginning I am there as much as I can be to try and help out, just be there for whatever is really required of me.”
Since 2010 the 28-year-old has reached the final of the Australian Open on four occasions, falling short at all of them. In this year’s final he was edged out in four sets by Novak Djokovic. Since 2006 the Brit has played 49 main draw singles matches at the event, winning 39 of them.
During the off-season Murray has made some adjustments to his training plans to be nearer to his wife. Usually he would train in Florida, but instead he has opted to train in Dubai. He told the Daily Mail that he picked Dubai due to the frequency of the flights back to the UK.
“All the flights leave in the evening from Miami, whereas here you can fly at all times in the day.” Murray said.
Last weekend Murray defeated Roger Federer during the Indian leg of the IPTL exhibition. The Brit fired 7 winners past the 17-time Grand Slam champion to take the set 6-4, sealing the win for the Singapore Slammers. On the ATP Tour, Murray hasn’t beaten the Swiss player since the 2013 Australian Open. Speaking about his recent triumph in India, the world No.2 has remained level-headed about the significance of the win.
‘It was good fun. Everyone was competitive. You don’t read too much into the matches because some of the guys haven’t played matches for a while and haven’t been practising as much. There were some good points, just a little bit inconsistent.’ He said.
This year Murray has ended the season at two in the world, the highest year-end position of his career. He has won four titles in 2015 in Munich, Madrid, London and Montreal. He also guided Great Britain to this first Davis Cup title since 1936.
