Three-time Grand Slam champion Andy Murray has urged his peers to follow rules related to COVID-19 on the Tour but admits that the current situation is far from perfect.
Due to the global pandemic, tournaments have suffered heavy financial losses and have been forced to implement numerous changes. Including limiting the number of fans that can attend, regular testing and implementing ‘bubbles’ which all players are required to stay in during their time participating. To make the situation even more complicated, the restrictions vary depending on each country. For example the Monte Carlo Masters took place behind closed doors but the following week the Barcelona Open was partly opened to the public.
“It isn’t that much fun going and staying in the bubbles,” Murray said during an interview with The Press Association. “In Miami, for example, you look out of the window and the whole city’s completely open but the players are obviously in the bubble. I can appreciate from the players’ perspective that that can be frustrating.
“And, because it’s been going on for a while, it’s a bit tiring. And I know for some of the Aussie players, they’re looking at nine or 10 months away from home because if they go home they have to do two weeks in a hotel.”
For some the rules are taking a toll on their mentality in the sport. US Open champion Dominic Thiem recently admitted that he has struggled in recent months. In an interview with Der Standard he said ‘Corona has taken beautiful things, starting with travelling and moving freely. The bad things stay.’ Another to speak out is Stefanos Tsitsipas who told Marca.com he had experienced some ‘dark moments.’ Meanwhile, controversy-stricken Benoit Paire said the current circumstances have made the Tour ‘sad, boring and ridiculous.’
However, Murray argues that the far from perfect scenario is a necessity if the sport wants to continue functioning at present. Arguing that it is the best possible way to keep players and tournament officials safe at present.
“I appreciate all that, that it is difficult. But, at the same time, seeing 60,000 people died in Brazil last month because of coronavirus, if this is what we have to do to be able to continue to do our jobs and to give the tournaments some security (then so be it),” he commented.
“If they opened up in Miami, it was spring break, I saw what was going on there in the city with tons of people coming in from around the country, partying and the city’s open, and then a bunch of the players start testing positive, that’s difficult for the tournament as well.
“It’s very uncertain times for them as well. Right now it’s the best way to keep the tournaments safe, and players and the members of staff safe as well.”
Murray, who will turn 34 next month, has also called for his fellow players to have a COVID-19 vaccine when offered if they want to escape bubble life. Both the ATP and WTA have publicly issued statements urging players to have a vaccination but some remain unsure. Meanwhile, world No.1 Novak Djokovic told reporters last week that players should be given a ‘freedom of choice.’ Last week at the Serbian Open players were offered a vaccination but Djokovic says he is not going to speak about if he will have one or not in order to avoid getting drawn into a debate.
“If you want to avoid having to be in a bubble for too long, you need to then support the vaccination, because you can’t just say, ‘No we want to just live normally and we don’t want any bubbles but we also don’t want to be vaccinated’. It’s a no-brainer to me,” Murray argues.
Murray has played three tournaments so fat this season with the most recent being at the Rotterdam Open in March. He has recently been sidelined from action due to left groin injury and it remains unclear as to how many matches he will play on clay heading into the grass swing.
“I need to be consistently practising (rather than) having these enforced breaks. That was the thing in December, why I think I got into such a good place was because of the two months of practising basically six days a week every week for a couple of months,” he said.
“By the end of that my game started to feel really good. That’s the first thing is to be able to be on the practice court consistently and then I obviously need to get the matches. How many matches that is, I don’t know.”
The Brit has experienced a mixed start to 2021 on the Tour. In February he reached the final of a Challenger tournament in Italy before losing to Illya Marchenko. He then returned to the ATP Tour by playing in Marseille but lost in the first round to Egor Gerasimov. In Rotterdam he defeated Robin Haase before losing in straight sets to Andrey Rublev.
Murray is currently ranked 121st in the world.
