Andy Murray admits he’s hugely encouraged by impressive China Open performance

ATP Tour
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Andy Murray believes he is now able to compete with all but the very top players in the world as he gave himself a positive assessment after the China Open.

Murray beat world number 13 and US Open semi-finalist Matteo Berrettini, as well as British number three Cameron Norrie, before falling to Dominic Thiem in the quarter-finals in Beijing.

And that appears to have given him a huge boost, with him hoping that becoming competitive again the best is now a realistic target following his nightmare time with injury.

“I’m playing well enough to be competitive at this level against all of the players,” said Murray.

“Maybe not quite consistent enough just now to beat maybe the top players.

“But I think against guys that are No. 10 or No. 20 in the world, I can compete well against them just now.

“I think I need a few more weeks of playing matches like this. [I need] two, three or four matches in a week, trying to play consistently well in all of those matches to say I’m playing Top 20 tennis or something like that. But I’m getting there.

“This week is better than last week. I hope next week is better than this week.

“That’s how I have to try to keep going to see where my limit is. I don’t think I’m at that limit now.

“I think I can keep improving. That’s what this week has shown me.”

“I think this was maybe the best in terms of how I played since I came back. It was great for me. I played three matches in four days, which is quite a lot,” said Murray.

Murray admitted that he felt “tired” ahead of the Thiem match, but not as much as he thought he would, so it remains another positive.

“Actually, I felt better than I expected today,” he explained.

“It was just another step for me. I wasn’t expecting to go from here to my highest level or winning tournaments straight away.

“Everything has kind of been a pretty gradual progress for me. This week was another step in the right direction.”

Murray will now head to the Shanghai Masters, a competition which he has won three times before.

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