Triple Grand Slam champion Andy Murray believes showing emotion on the court enables him to produce his best tennis.
The former world No.1 is playing at the Citi Open where he defeated Brandon Nakashima 7-6(5), 6-4, in his opening match. Murray is seeded 15th in this year’s draw as he aims to be seeded at the upcoming US Open for the first time since 2016. This week is the first tournament the Brit is playing since his second round loss to Stefanos Tsitsipas at Wimbledon.
Speaking to reporters in Washington, Murray believes the way he uses emotion to get the best out of his tennis is similar to what Novak Djokovic does in his matches. The two grew up on the Tour together with Murray being just seven days older than the Serbian. On the Tour, their head-to-head is 25-11 in Djokovic’s favour.
“For me, and I think I would say I’m more like Novak in that sense is that my feeling is that he plays his best when he’s showing his emotion. Positively or negatively, he’s getting it out there,” Tennis Now quoted Murray as saying.
“I feel like that’s the same with me, but I just need to be careful that it doesn’t go too flat or too much energy getting used up by getting frustrated after every point or getting too pumped up after every point. That’s when it can become a problem.”
Despite his experience, the 36-year-old admits that he is still trying to figure out the right balance when it comes to controlling his emotions. Murray has won a total of ATP 46 titles so far in his career and is the only man in history to have won back-to-back Olympic gold medals in singles.
“It’s just trying to get the balance right for me,” he said. “So I have played matches, not many, where I have said nothing during the match (smiling). I have often, my coaches or my team have said to me, like, What was up today? You seemed very flat on the court.‘
“That’s, for me, when it goes the other way, you know, I don’t get the most out of myself, if I’m not saying anything or I’m not reacting, like, positively or negatively to points.”
Murray will next take on a resurgent Taylor Fritz who won the Atlanta Open last week. The top seed began his campaign with a 6-3, 6-3, win over Zachary Svajda. Should he beat Fritz, it will be his first win over a top-10 player since June 2022.
