Andy Murray has criticized his performance over the past few months after admitting that he needs to work harder to get the results he desires.
The three-time Grand Slam champion is currently ranked 46th in the world and is set to achieve his highest year-end position since undergoing hip resurfacing surgery in 2019. However, Murray has only managed to record seven wins out of 15 matches played since August, including the Davis Cup. During that period, Brit has won back-to-back matches in one out of seven ATP tournaments played.
In recent weeks Murray has been struggling with cramping whilst playing and has even undergone tests to analyze the problem. Although he has frankly admits that a large part of the problem is linked to not doing enough work.
“I was pretty downbeat with the last few months,” Murray told The Evening Standard. “The last seven or eight tournaments, I had issues with cramping and I’ve never had that consistently. So, I’m extremely disappointed.
“I can deal with losing a tennis match as it’s a difficult sport and you sometimes don’t perform as well as you’d like but there’s no excuse for being let down physically.
“My reflection on the last four or five months is that I’ve not been doing enough work to perform at the level I need to. I need to change that if I want to get back to the top of the game.”
Murray returned to the world’s top 50 in June after reaching the final of the Stuttgart Open. He was also runner-up at the Sydney International in January and reached the third round of the US Open in what was his best run at the New York major since 2016.
Whilst there are encouraging signs coming from the former world No.1, he is far from satisfied with his season overall.
“I’m positive about next season and the work I have to do,” he said. “I’ve already started some of that and I need to empty the tank in the next six to eight weeks in the gym and on the practice court.
“I was 130-140 in the world at the start of the season and I’m now inside the top 50. For most players, that’s a really positive year. For me, I don’t view it that way but I did make progress.
“There’s no guarantee I would have won those matches without the cramping but I feel there would have been potentially deeper runs.
“I played quite a lot of tournaments from Wimbledon through to the end of the season. From an endurance perspective, I didn’t cope that well but there’s not been the injuries and niggles, which hasn’t been the case the last few years.”
Murray ends his season with a win-loss record of 26-19 on the Tour. This is the most wins he has achieved within a year since 2016 when he won a staggering 78 matches.
