Andy Murray won his first tour-level match since August on Monday night but admitted after he is playing under ‘extra stress’ amid constant speculation over his future.
Murray, the three-time Grand Slam champion from Dunblane, fought his way back from a set down to beat Robin Haase at the ABN Amro World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam and recovered from 3-0 down in the final set in a hard-fought 2-6 7-6 (7-2) 6-3 win.
It was just Murray’s second tour-level match of the year, having lost to Egor Gerasimov in Montpellier a week ago, and he did well to swerve back-to-back defeats to unfancied opponents.
After the match, the 33-year-old – who was forced to miss the Australian Open after testing positive for coronavirus – confessed he was feeling the strain of competing at the top level, with critics calling for him to end his career.
‘It’s not easy,’ said the former world No. 1. ‘Every time I lose a match I’m getting told to retire, that I should stop playing, that I’m finished and got nothing left or whatever and it’s sad and all of these things.
‘It’s not easy. I feel like I’m playing for my career just now, each time I step on court, which is a motivation in some ways.
‘But it also adds a bit of extra stress. There’s a bit of extra doubt there and on top of that I’m playing with a metal hip, which is hard. Trust me, it’s not easy.
‘So it’s a big challenge for me just now and one that I’ll meet head on, but it’s not easy just now. The last few months have been a bit of a struggle.’
Murray – currently ranked 123 in the ATP leaderboard – was the first to admit it was far from his best performance against Haase, the world No. 193 from the Netherlands, but could take positives in finding a way through.
‘From the mental side yeah, I did well to win because I was really struggling with my game for probably about an hour and a half of that match,’ added Murray.
‘I haven’t really felt like that many times in my career, mis-timing the ball, I was…I don’t know. It was very strange. I didn’t quite know what to do out there.
‘When I did feel I was making the right decisions, I was just mis-timing the ball, it wasn’t coming off my racquet like usual.
‘I didn’t return well and then I found a way and actually at the end, I started to play a bit better – so the mental side and the physical side was positive.
‘I moved pretty well and played for two-and-a-half hours and my hips and groin and stuff felt good, so that was positive.
‘But from the tennis side, it was average at best.’
Despite being far from his best, Murray does look physically superior to last season – something that can’t be taken for granted given his long-term hip struggles.
‘I know physically I’m in a better place that I was at then end of 2019, from all of the results I have from all of the gym work and stuff,’ added Murray.
‘When I finished in Antwerp in 2019 I felt good physically and then the next time I got on the court I had an issue with my groin and it took ages for that to get better.
‘Physically I feel good right now, but you don’t know what’s round the corner and that’s the thing I’ve been more anxious and apprehensive about, more than my tennis.’
Follow Metro Sport across our social channels, on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
For more stories like this, check our sport page.
Full Post Here - Andy Murray opens up on ‘extra stress’ he’s under after fightback win in Rotterdam
Get Bitcoin Watching YouTube
