Andy Murray offers up encouraging comments as he prepares for 2022 season

Kevin Palmer
December 15, 2021

Former world No.1 Andy Murray is heading into the 2022 season with a spring in his step, after he confirmed he had made “some significant improvements” in the final weeks of last season.

Murray lost some tight matches against some of the game’s highest-ranked and in-form players, with the former world No.1 frustrated by his failure to get over the line in losses against Stefanos Tsitsipas and Carlos Alcaraz.

Yet he did record wins against top ten players Hubert Hurkacz and Jannick Sinner and the of his performance was well above his current world ranking of 134.

Now Murray is preparing for the new season by appearing at the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi and he told The National that his hopes for the New Year have been bosted by his form in the final months of last season.

“I definitely felt I’d made some significant improvements as we moved towards the end of the season,” said Murray. “It highlights how important getting match play is when you are coming back from an injury or a long stretch of time out.

“There are still things I need to work on, and we’ll be doing that in the off season, but I was pleased with how I ended the year.”

Murray also revealed why he had decided to play in the event in Abu Dhabi as he added: “At this time of year, I usually do a block of warm weather training, but this year we took the decision to do most of the off season in the UK, which means playing indoors.

“Being able to play at Mubadala is great preparation for Australia. It allows me more on court time, and I’m ready to put into play some of the things we’ve been working on over the last few weeks.”

Murray’s ranking has slipped to a point that he will need a wildcard to gain entry to the Australian Open, where he hopes to return to the scene of what appeared to be his final match back in 2019.

The Scot even made an emotional farewell speech to the Melbourne crowd after he lost to Roberto Bautista Agut, but it looks like he will be back at the Australian Open next month.

Murray split with his long-term coach Jamie Delgado ahead of the 2022 season and is looking to add new elements to his game with the input of a new permanent coach, with Jan De Witt working with him in recent weeks.

“This decision is an important one for me because obviously I don’t know how much longer I’m going to be playing so I want to make sure the person that’s with me for the last period of my career is the right one,” added Murray. “That’s why I’m going about it this way.”

Andy Murray