Andy Murray’s reign as world No1 this season may not have necessarily gone according to plan but that’s not stopping the Brit from having high expectations for the remainder of 2017.
Murray, who opens his Madrid campaign on Tuesday against Romanian wildcard Marius Copil, has suffered a few early losses this year, in Melbourne, Indian Wells and Monte Carlo, and has had to deal with an elbow problem in recent weeks.
He made a last-minute change to his schedule and played the Barcelona tournament, where he fell in the semi-finals to Dominic Thiem.
While he did not walk away with the trophy, Murray feels he’s in good shape for a decent shot at a second Madrid crown.
“Barcelona went really well for me. Got three matches in three days. It would have been nice, obviously, to have played an extra one or two. It would have been perfect,” Murray told reporters in Madrid.
“But I had the long match with Ramos on the Friday. It was like three hours. Then to come out and play again the next day, I actually felt pretty good. I played some decent stuff there. Obviously could have been a bit better.
“But practice here the last few days has been very good. I’m happy with how I’m playing. I’m starting to move better, feel like I served well the last few days, which is an important part of my game.
“Last year I served well. My results improved a lot because of that. Obviously haven’t served so well in Barcelona, Monte Carlo. It’s not easy at this level to win matches if you’re getting broken a lot. Hopefully I serve a bit better this week.”
The soon-to-be 30-year-old won Madrid in 2015 and reached the final last year before going on to capture the Rome title and placing runner-up at Roland Garros.
He has managed to master a surface he had struggled with in the past and believes he can replicate his great form on clay from the last two seasons over the next five weeks.
“Expectations are high. I want to do well the next few weeks. In many ways, it’s the most important part of the year. There’s a lot of big tournaments that come very quickly, one after the other,” added Murray.
The Scot maintains though that it remains a surface that requires the most adjustment from himself.
“At the beginning of the clay season, it’s always a bit trickier for me than the other surfaces just because the movement isn’t as natural on this surface for me as it is on the hard courts and the grass courts. It takes me time. I need to work on that each year when I come back onto it a lot before I feel comfortable doing it,” he explained.
“The last couple of years, once I’ve got that part of my game right, then I feel like clay does actually suit my game well. You know, the results the last couple of years would suggest that.”
Murray started his year by making the Doha final, which he lost to Djokovic, before exiting the Australian Open in the fourth round at the hands of Mischa Zverev.
He won the Dubai title, before losing his opener at Indian Wells, and missed Miami with an elbow problem. A third round defeat to Albert Ramos-Vinolas in Monte Carlo saw his clay season get off to a rocky start, but he avenged the defeat to the Spaniard the following week in Barcelona, where he made the semis.
“To be honest, the one (early loss) that was disappointing for me was Australia, because it was a slam, a tournament where I’d had really good runs for a number of years in a row. I felt good going into it. That one was disappointing to me,” reflected Murray.
“I think Indian Wells, I’ve struggled there in the past. I’ve lost maybe some matches there that I wouldn’t have been expected to. I haven’t played well there. I mean, that’s happened to me. That’s not just been this year that that’s been the case.
“Then, yeah, since then I’ve obviously had the elbow issue. It was touch-and-go whether I was going to be able to play Monte Carlo.
“I mean, the one disappointment for me this year has been the Australian Open really. That’s one that I thought about, spoke a lot to my team about at the time. Yeah, I tried to learn from that one.
“But now I’ve been wanting the last three, four weeks to get myself back in match shape, feeling fit and healthy again. And I do. I’m hoping now my results start to pick up.”
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