In London where conditions are far cooler than they are in America, Andy Murray found a creative way to prepare for his upcoming tournaments.
The three-time Grand Slam champion turned to the use of heaters, an exercise bike and his steam room to get himself ready for the humidity he will face. In recent weeks Murray has done bike sessions with the heaters on to create a scenario that he is working out in temperatures around 35 degrees. The hope is that by doing this the former world No.1 will avoid cramping in the heat which affected him during matches played on the Tour last summer.
Murray returns to action this week at the Citi Open in Washington in what will be his first event since losing in the second round of Wimbledon to Stefanos Tsitsipas. He has reached the final of the tournament once before, which was back in 2006.
“In preparation before I left to come here, I was doing a lot of bike sessions. Basically, I can do it at home, but I have a room where I can use like heaters and I have a steam room next to it,” Murray told reporters on media day. “It wasn’t put in there for that purpose, but I put the bike in there and we can, like, open the steam room a little bit to increase the humidity, obviously the heaters to get the heat in the room up.
“Set it to like 35 degrees Celsius and, like, 70% humidity, and then I would do my bike sessions in there.“
According to the met office, temperatures are forecasted to range between 28 and 31 degrees throughout the week in Washington. On top of that, players will also have to deal with the humidity.
“We’d also spend 20 to 30 minutes in the sauna, as well. So just to try and help with the heat adaptation,” Murray added. “Then, yeah, just getting here early enough to give your body time to get used to it, really. Obviously, stay on top of all of the hydration and all those sorts of things as well. Yeah, definitely made sure I did enough preparation before getting here.”
Murray is currently ranked 44th in the world and will be targeting a seeding at this year’s US Open which will start at the end of next month. His best performance of the season so far was reaching the final of the Doha Open before losing to Daniil Medvedev. He has also won back-to-back grass court titles on the lower-level Challenger circuit.
The 36-year-old is the 15th seed in Washington and has received a bye in the first round. He will start his campaign against either Brandon Nakashima or Aleksandar Vukic.
