Exclusive: “I want that fairy tale scenario” – Andy Murray shot for 2022 and wants to prove the skeptics wrong

When things get tough, perspective is everything, and fortunately for Andy Murray, number one on the former world list has a lot to do as he approaches the tennis season of 2022 appropriately, clearly and willingly to take new risks at such a late in his career.

Several surgeries and a reconstructed hip have prevented the 34-year-old from attempting a competitive return. And while the results haven’t steadily swayed in his direction over the past year, Murray says he’s going to leave the “stone unturned” in terms of his off-field preparation so he can do his best in this upcoming campaign.

The Scottish mindset coming to 2022 requires an awkward balance between dealing with it during the season so that he can “do the right things” off-site while not accumulating pressure as he competes on the field.

“I just want to get the most out of it even though I can still do it,” Murray told Eurosport in an exclusive interview on the side of the ongoing Mubadala Tennis World Championships in Abu Dhabi.

“I’ve spoken to many former players who have said,‘ When it’s gone, there’s no substitute for it. So enjoy it for as long as you can, play for as long as you can. Because I know a lot of players have stopped and regretted it in a way when they could have continued.

“Stop mentioning metal wire”

Many people wonder what makes Murray go so far as to keep his tennis career alive. At its core, he loves sports and says he wants to “just see what I can do.”

“A lot of people said to me,‘ Stop mentioning, don’t talk about metal hip. ’And I’m like,‘ Why? That’s relevant, ’” he ponders.

“The fact that I can still do this and compete with the best players in the world with a metal spike, I’m proud to be able to do it and I think there are very few people who can compete (so).

“A lot of people have come to me and said, ‘It’s inspiring that you keep trying, fighting and continuing,’ and I think that’s something I’ll be remembered for, probably when I stop playing.”

Feeded by skeptics

Murray struggled to make consecutive wins in several episodes in 2021, but a third round at Wimbledon, a tight five-round loss to Stefanos Tsitsipas at the US Open and a promising decision for a season that included the top two. -10 wins over Hubert Hurkacz and Jannik Sinner, providing ample evidence that the British can still cause damage on the tennis court against the best in the sport.

In the Abu Dhabi show tournament this weekend, he knocked out Daniel Evans and Rafael Nadal in the live series and played Saturday’s final 5th place in the world against Andrey Rublev.

Murray makes no secret of his enjoyment of showing people wrong, and the more he faces skepticism, the stronger his desire to look.

“It’s always somehow felt like me. I like it when people say there’s something I can’t do or something I shouldn’t do. It motivates me a lot, he admits.

Growing up, Murray admired Muhammad Alia and the way the boxing legend silenced opponents.

“I love boxing and his story was an amazing story,” he says.

“When he beat George Foreman to win the world championship, everyone thought he was ready, he had no chance, everyone kept him away and so on. It was something that was inspiring to me at the time.

“Right now, I don’t think about it every single day, but it’s another situation where people shouldn’t always be so fast and write everyone off.

– It happened – and I’m not saying I’m Roger Federer or Muhammad Ali, I really am not. But I still have the ability to compete with the best players in the world. If my body is able to stay healthy, it is certainly possible. And while that opportunity still exists, I will continue to try to achieve what I want. ”

Making changes

Murray is goal-oriented and has specific goals he believes he can achieve in the coming season. He wants to achieve 700 match wins in his career (he is currently 691) and hopes to reach 50 championships (he is currently 46).

“The biggest goal is to get into the deep Grand Slam and be in the semi-finals, the semi-finals of the Slam, in a fairytale scenario where it’s like ‘Can he do it again?’ Is that possible?” he adds.

Since 134 on the world rankings, Murray has made two significant changes: He has resigned from his nearly six-year-old coach, Jamie Delgado, and plays on the new racket after competing on the same device for two decades.

Murray tested several different rackets in the past, but never made himself go through the switch. He says the racket he played with had a particularly small head “compared to 95 percent of the tour’s players.”

“I just felt like I should try something that might be a little easier to play with, a little more forgiving,” he explains. “Especially if I don’t move quite as well as before and maybe I get a little, just a fraction of a second later on some balls and I’m missing the middle of the racket, it still gives me help. But yes, it’s really not easy.”

Maintaining friendship

As for his coaching duties, Murray does not make momentary decisions to replace Delgado. He is in Abu Dhabi on trial with Jan de Witt, who has worked with Gael Monfils, Gilles Simon and Nikoloz Basilashvili, while Delgado has joined the Denis Shapovalov camp as head coach.

Murray admits it’s “a little weird” to see Delgado with Shapovalov in the UAE capital this week, but assures them there are no inconveniences between them.

“It’s not easy working with someone you’re a friend with, and when it doesn’t go well in the end, there’s probably frustration on both sides,” Murray says.

“You don’t want a professional relationship to hurt your personal relationship. When we (Jamie and I) talked about it, it was really important to me, both of us. It was like, ‘Look, let’s go on this and go back to friendship and go out to eat while we’re in Abu Dhabi and let us go on and return to what it was before.

Navigation in difficult times

Throughout his career, Murray has spoken directly about the importance of mental health and worked with psychologists for several years – although he admitted he hopes to use them more in the past.

He says the hardest part of this current episode, in addition to not achieving the results he wanted, is being away from his wife and children.

Murray and his wife Kim always wanted a big family and now they have four children, three girls and a son. The three-time champion says it is even harder to travel and leave them behind, especially as they have become more aware of his absence.

“Now, of course, they’re asking, how many days are you going to be away, how many weeks are you going to be away?” she says of her older girls.

He added: “Balancing work-home life too; I make sure I’m a good dad, but I also do all the training and everything I need to keep my body fit and be able to play the highest level of tennis with my problems. My body is not easy.”

Despite this, Murray believes his family is one of the main reasons he has been able to maintain his mental health through his grueling attempt to return. His wife and children are more important than winning or losing a tennis match, and the reality has helped him keep his professional problems in perspective.

“I feel like I have a duty there to try to be a good father to my children. I try not to be disappointed with those things, and maybe four or five years ago I certainly would have done so, ”he says.

“I wish maybe when I was younger I would have enjoyed the good times and probably handled the bad times a little better and I would have been a little kinder and easier to myself than I was.”

“I believe vaccines are safe and effective”

In the future, Murray will fly back to London to spend Christmas with his family before heading to Melbourne, where he hopes to compete in one or two preliminary races and look for a joker card for the Australian Open. If he is not allowed to call for the main draw – an unlikely scenario given that he made it to the finals five times in Melbourne Park – Murray says his “ego is good enough” to play in the qualifiers if necessary.

Before he jumps on a plane to Australia, Murray plans to get a booster vaccine for Covid-19. All players must be fully vaccinated in order to compete in the opening season of the Grand Slam, and the British want to get their third point as an extra precaution.

Asked if he would be surprised if Novak Djokovic lost the chance to win record 21st major and 10th Australian Open championships because he opposes vaccines as mandatory, Murray answers yes and no.

“Yes, I would be surprised because I believe the vaccine is safe. I know some people now say they are not effective because they now have to get more vaccines to help new strains and everything, but I think it is related to many diseases Murray replied.

“Like the flu, for example, we are offered flu treatments every year and they change a little to reduce the risk. I think they are safe and effective, so yes, I would be surprised if he didn’t go for that reason.

“But also, I think it’s starting to get very close, and we really don’t know exactly what’s going on, but you can assume he may have been reluctant to do it. So I think if I heard he wasn’t leaving tomorrow, would I be surprised? No, I don’t think so. “