Former world number one Andy Murray revealed he is struggling to practice in ‘the right way’ as he prepares to skip the clay season entirely to focus on the grass season in the summer.
Murray suffered a 6-4 6-2 defeat to world number two Daniil Medvedev in the second round at the Miami Open. His performance was particularly uninspiring, with even Tim Henman - a keen advocate of Murray - admitting on Amazon Prime that it wasn’t a good outing by the Scot.
The former British number one recently announced he will skip the clay season entirely in order to prepare for the grass season. Murray will return to action and likely compete in the Queen’s Club tournament before attempting to embark on a fairytale run at Wimbledon.
“My level of tennis is obviously not right now where it needs to be to win matches like that, today there were some good signs on the court but the two key things are serve and return – I didn’t do either of them particularly well,” Murray revealed. “I think ( coach Ivan Lendl ) some clarity over the right way to play and the right way to practice, I don’t feel I have been practising the right things for 18 months or so and it is difficult to undo that in the space of a few weeks.
“Hence that is one of the reasons I am taking a big period of training to try to change some of those things and get my game into a place where it’s more competitive against the top players again.”
Meanwhile, Medvedev advanced to the third round of the Miami Open, where he will face Pedro Martinez for a spot in the semi-finals. There is something greater on the line for the Russian: a place in the final four will mean he returns to the top of the world rankings, knocking off Novak Djokovic.
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In February, Medvedev became the 27th player to be world number one since the ATP Rankings began in 1973. Djokovic recently returned to the top of the world rankings after the 26-year-old struggled in the following events.
Djokovic currently has 8,465 points and holds a 55-point lead over Medvedev, who is on 8,410 points himself. On April 4, the Serb will lose his 2019 Miami points (45) while Medvedev will drop his 2021 Miami points (180), which would usually extend Djokovic’s lead at the top.
However, the 20-time Grand Slam champion is not competing in Miami - which means the opportunity to take world number on his in Medvedev’s hands. The reigning US Open champion will look to win his first title of the 2022 season in Florida.
The Miami Open runs until April 3, while the grass season gets underway after the French Open is complete in June.
