Andy Murray backs himself for deep run on grass of Wimbledon

Wimbledon

James Richardson
February 27, 2023

Andy Murray believes that Wimbledon offers him the best chance to have another deep run at a Grand Slam.

Murray has shown great fight in the 2023 season so far, although his good form has now been disrupted by injury.

He has had to scratch and claw to get anything on the hard courts, but Murray feels that his experience on grass will give him an edge come Wimbledon time.

Murray says that there are less players capable of finding a championship-winning level on grass and that makes Wimbledon his best opportunity to get into the second week of a Grand Slam.

“My feeling on Wimbledon is that less players play well on grass,” he told the Times.

“More of the guys are comfortable on the hard courts and that probably increases my chances. I’m not saying I would expect to win the French Open [on clay] if I played, but with Wimbledon there is certainly a better opportunity to have a deep run.

“But I also really like the way that I’ve trained in practice these last four months and I’ve not been doing that with Wimbledon in mind. I’m trying to just focus on each day and trying to get the most out of it. If I do that and accumulate enough of those days, then I believe that come Wimbledon my game will be in a really, really good place.

“I just know that where my game today, in comparison to where it was last year, is night and day. In Doha last year I played one of the worst matches of my career physically [losing 6-0 6-1 to Roberto Bautista Agut in the second round]. I felt s***, I played terrible and I had no real clarity around what I was doing. I had issues with my back and I felt terrible.”

Murray is confident that he could still play seven matches across two weeks.

He admitted that another string of marathon matches will drastically harm his chances of reaching his 12th Grand Slam final.

“Yes, I have some niggles and my body doesn’t feel amazing, but it’s coped really well with the first few tournaments of the year that have been really demanding.

“My belief is that my body would be fine to play seven five-set matches if needs be. Granted, if they are six-hour ones, probably not, but regular five-set matches, I’d be able to cope with that.”

Andy Murray