Andy Murray concedes that he is a long way from No 1 but still making progress

Andy Murray says that when you have been World No 1 that becomes your yardstick for success.

By that standard, Murray, who battled back into the top 50 in the last year, hasn’t had the best year.

Still, Murray is encouraged by how he has gone at times, however slow the progress has been.

He hopes to continue making progress in 2023 and perhaps end his six year wait to win an ATP Tour title.

“When you’ve been at the top of the game and got to No. 1, that’s always where your reference point is in terms of how you’re doing,” Murray said on the ATP Tennis Radio Podcast. “So in that respect it’s been pretty average, but at the beginning of the year I was ranked No. 135 in the world and now I’m in the 40s. That’s a big jump, so it’s been OK this year. So for a lot of players that would be really positive.”

“I would like to have done better, and I don’t feel like I have played my best tennis this year. It’s been ok this year. Hopefully, next year I can keep progressing.”

Another Brit, in Dan Evans, is also setting out to push the limits of what he is capable of.

“I look at these tournaments differently to a lot of these top guys, I have to have a lot of things fall right, but reaching the Montreal semi-finals shows I can get to the latter stages of these tournaments if I do certain things and play the right tennis. I can improve and that’s why we’re on the practice courts each day and it’s just about tinkering,”

Murray plans to head over to Florida to complete his pre-season training and get hos physical work in.

“I’ve been chatting a lot about the offseason and the stuff that I want to do with my team and you know, I’ve got that plan in terms of where I’m going to do that.

“I’m going to go over to Florida, you know, for the first time in a while and that’s where I used to always do my offseasons there and you know, and really put in some hard work on my game and physically.

“I just I want to keep progressing. like this year I have progressed a lot from where I was, if things obviously start to go backwards then you know, if performances don’t improve or physically you know, I’m struggling the you know, I have to look at things but I’m still kind of going in the direction that I want to be got got plans to have a good year next year.”

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