Andy Murray exclusive – Former Wimbledon champ predicts ‘surprise’ success

Kevin Palmer
March 2, 2022

Andy Murray may have struggled to find consistency on the court in 2022, but he has been handed a huge vote of confidence from one of his fellow former Wimbledon champions.

Murray has shown flashes of brilliance as he burst back into the world’s top 100 in the opening weeks of this year, but he openly admits the sustained success he craves has been hard to engineer as he looks to return to the top of the game after hip surgery.

A challenging couple of events in Qatar and Dubai that saw the two-time Wimbledon champion lose heavily against Roberto Bautista Agut and Jannik Sinner cast fresh doubts over his long-term future in the sport, but 1996 Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek is convinced Murray still has plenty to offer.

“He is playing fantastic and working really hard,” Krajicek told Tennis365 in his role as tournament director of the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam.

“I don’t know how good he is moving compared to how he used to move, but he looks to be in great shape.

“Now this year he has got to the finals of Syndey and ask what he can achieve. Can he get back into the top 50, can he maybe go into the top 20? I think maybe it is possible, but I don’t know how it is for him after he makes a good result for his body to come back and have a recovery.

“If he is rested well, he can beat most guys still. But if he wants to go to the top 20, he has to do that for 10 or 12 weeks of the year and I don’t know if his body can do that, but I take my hat off to him.

“I think he is a great person and a great competitor on the court. What he has achieved in the toughest era in tennis is amazing.

“He still finds the desire and he likes the challenge. The challenge before was winning Slams, he won three of them. He won two Olympic goals, No 1 in the world.

“Now his challenge is with this metal hip. What is the best he can be with a metal hip? I think he is going to surprise us.”

Murray has suggested he will not continue in the sport unless he can get to the back end of tournaments and his next big tests will come when he plays at the Indian Wells and Miami Masters events later this month.

Andy Murray