Former world No.1 Andy Murray believes it is only a matter of time before he once again starts reaching the later stages of tournaments following his latest performance at the Vienna Open.
The three-time Grand Slam champion fell in straight sets to Carlos Alcaraz in the second round of the tournament on Wednesday. 18-year-old Alcaraz reached the quarter-finals of the US Open earlier this year and played Murray for the first time in Indian Wells. The defeat occurred just a day after the Brit recorded his first top 10 win of the season over Hubert Hurkacz.
Despite losing his two-hour match against the teenager, Murray is confident that he is on the verge of staging a breakthrough on the Tour once again. He is currently ranked 156th in the world and hasn’t been in the top 100 since having hip resurfacing surgery.
“I’m not going to keep losing in the second and third round of tournaments. I will get better and I will improve and I will break through in one week, or two weeks, or a few months,” atptour.com quoted Murray as saying. “It will happen. I obviously would like it to be happening quicker than what it is.
“But he did play extremely well and he’s a top young player and if you’re hitting single-digit unforced errors playing that way and with the power that he has it’s going to be tough… If I continue on that path and build up a little bit more consistency, be that little bit more clinical and a bit more ruthless I will start winning more and have some deep runs, but it’s tough.”
Murray, who is the only British man in history to top the ATP rankings, has achieved a win-loss record of 13-12 so far this season with his best result occurring in Metz where he reached the quarter-finals. He also reached the third round at Wimbledon.
However, nine of Murray’s 13 losses this year have been to players ranked inside the top 20, including Stefanos Tsitsipas at the US Open, Alexander Zverev in Indian Wells and Hurkacz twice.
“I won two days ago against a guy who’s Top 10 in the world, made the semis at Wimbledon this year, won an ATP Masters 1000 this year,” Murray said of Hurkacz. “Alcaraz had a great run at the US Open and I had a good win against him.
“I had some good matches against some top players who’ve had great runs at these events, so I’m not really sure why I should think that I couldn’t do that again. I sort of look at those matches and think if Hurkacz can make semis at Wimbledon why is that not possible?”
If the 34-year-old wants to have a breakthrough before the season ends, he only has two tournaments to do so. He will play in the Stockholm Open next week and is hoping to then travel to France for the Paris Masters. However, he admits that it is unlikely that he will play in the Davis Cup because he wants to have a full off-season.
Murray is the only player to have at least seven wins over each member of the Big Three.
