Andy Murray admits that he could have done better with his training this season after only being able to play seven matches due to injury and the COVID-19 pandemic.
The former world No.1 says he received a wake up call after the French Open when he got on a body fat measuring machine. At Roland Garros he lost in the first round to Stan Wawrinka in straight sets. At the time he was criticised by Mats Wilander for taking a wildcard into the Grand Slam with the Swede arguing that it could have gone to a younger player.
“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 said during a video chat with Daniela Hantuchova.
“I’d been working fairly hard but I could have done much better. I could have been eating healthier and sleeping better.”
Murray says the result of his body fat measurement served as a wake up call and extra motivation for him to work harder heading into the 2021 season. This year he had been troubled by pelvic bruising and missed his final tournament of the season due to a hip issue. Continuing what has been an unfortunate trend in injury issues for Murray who also had to undergo two hip surgeries in 2018 and 2019 to continue his career.
Reflecting on his setbacks, the 33-year-old admits that he has sometimes struggled for motivation but isn’t planning on stepping away from the sport anytime soon. Rebuffing a recent suggestion from Greg Rusedski that he may call it time on his career at Wimbledon next year.
“There’s 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,” he said.
“I think that as you get older, you need to obviously, there’s certain things that you can do differently, but you almost need to work harder to stay in shape and spend more time with your physio.”
Murray is currently training during a 10-week off-season which is two times longer than normal for him. He believes that he is still able to compete among the best in the world but admits there is one area of his game that he is struggling with.
“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,” he explains.
“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,” Murray later added.
Murray has played in four tournaments this year where he has won three out of seven matches. His best run was at the Western and Southern Open where he defeated Alexander Zverev en route to the third round. He is currently ranked 122nd in the world.
