Three-time Grand Slam champion Andy Murray says he needs to work on both his physicality and consistency on the court after crashing out of the US Open.
The former world No.1 fell 6-2, 6-3, 6-4, to Canadian rising star Felix Auger Aliassime who produced one of his best performances on the Tour this season. Murray was unable to make an impact on his opponents serve and failed to generate a break point opportunity throughout the match. Auger-Aliassime won 89% of his first service points and blasted 52 winners past the two-time Olympic champion.
“He served a little bit better tonight than he had in the last couple of weeks which helped because he obviously got quite a lot of free points with the first serve,” Murray said following the match.
“Even when I was getting a racquet on it he was able to dictate off the first shot of the rally, as well.”
Murray’s defeat came two days after his marathon clash against Yoshihito Nishioka which saw him fight back from two sets down to win. Making it the 10th time in his career that he had done so. The US Open is the first major tournament he has played since having hip resurfacing surgery and only the second this year after starting the season late due to pelvic bruising.
Whilst there are positives for the 33-year-old in his bid to return back to the top of the sport, he admits that there is still a lot of work he needs to do.
“I would like to play consistently better tennis and consistently higher-level tennis because what that does is like in the first round, for example, I thought I played better as the match went on,” he explained.
“But if you aren’t playing at a high level consistently then you will play longer matches because you’re having dips. I think that was the case in my matches last week, as well.’
“I played a really good first set against Zverev, dropped off a bit in the second set, third set was kind of similar. The match against Tiafoe was the same.’
“So that’s something that’s going to have to improve, as well.”
Besides targeting areas of his game that he needs to improve over the coming months, Murray feels that his latest New York performances has enhance his belief they he can one day pose a threat in the majors again. Due to injury setbacks, he has only played in a grand slam three times since 2018.
“In terms of winning Grand Slams again, that’s going to be extremely difficult to do. It was hard enough when I had two normal hips. So it will be difficult, but I’ll keep trying, like, why not?” Murray admits.
“Why shouldn’t I try my hardest to do that? And if I don’t, that’s all right. But I might as well shoot for the stars. And if I don’t get there, then that’s all right. But I’m trying my best to get the most out of what my body gives me now.”
As for Auger-Aliassime his latest win was in some ways a full circle for him. At the age of 11 he watched Murray play at the 2011 US Open on Arthur Ashe Arena when he defeated Feliciano Lopez in the third round. Nine years later he is now the one who has defeated the British great. An achievement that has moved him into the third round of the US Open for the first time in his career.
“It wouldn’t be fair for me to say that he was at his peak tonight,” the world No.21 said of Murray.
“But even though he wasn’t his best tonight, I still felt and I understood why he was a great champion with the way he was able to make you earn every point and you needed to play well to win a match like today.” He added.
Murray’s focus now switches to the upcoming clay-court swing. Although he will not be playing in Rome in order to give his body a longer rest ahead of the French Open.
