Murray Lashes Back at Recent Charges

Written by: Staff on 25th June 2012

Murray Lashes Back at Recent Charges

epa03279451 Andy Murray of Britain in action during a training session for the Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, in London, Britain, 24 June 2012. EPA/JONATHAN BRADY |

Wimbledon fourth seed Andy Murray, again burdened with the national hopes for a British male champion at the All England Club after a 76 years wait from Fred Perry’s last triumph, has hit back in an angry manner at his growing band of critics who railed on him after his injury dramas at the recent French Open.

Fellow Brit and former Wimbledon ladies champion Virginia Wade termed Murray a drama queen, German veteran Tommy Haas branded the 25 year-old Scot a faker and John McEnroe suggested the multifarious injury problems might be more in the mind than the body.

Finally Murray could keep his own counsel no longer and blasted back that he required eight deep rooted injections into his back on the eve of the French Open in order to play at Roland Garros a month ago and the problems, most dramatically highlighted in his second round win against Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen, were legitimate and extremely painful.

After an unsuccessful grass court preparation for Wimbledon, losing in his initial match at the AEGON Championships at London’s Queen’s Club and being beaten in two exhibition outings at the Boodles event at Buckinghamshire’s Stoke Park, Murray responded to the series of adverse comments.

“I’m not accepting it anymore because it’s not fair,” said the fourth seed who is bidding to go further than the semi-final stage where he has been beaten three years in succession. “I think eight pain-killing injections in your back before the French Open justifies a genuine injury.

“A lot of people have suggested that it hasn’t been genuine. I’ve a genuine injury, a genuine back problem, it’s not a mental thing. It’s something that’s there. They can come see my reports from the doctors, they can see the pictures of a needle about eight inches long in my back.

Murray maintains he is fine for the start of his Wimbledon campaign where he has initially been drawn against the 45th ranked Russian Nikolay Davydenko. “It’s a problem I had for a while at the beginning of the year. I played through it for five months and it just got worse. Then I took the injections and it feels better since I had them done,” he said.

After extending eventual champion Novak Djokovic to an intense five sets semi-final at the Australian Open in January and then beating the Serb a month later in Dubai, Murray’s 2012 form under the coaching of Ivan Lendl has failed to live up to initial promise.

However Murray still goes into his seventh Wimbledon campaign believing he can break the monopoly of Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer who have triumphed in all but one of the last 29 majors.

“I have no other choice,” said the 25 year-old Scot. “I really don’t think there’s much point in playing anymore if I didn’t think I could win the tournament. I just prepare as best I can and believe I can win the tournament when it starts.”

And he refuses to acknowledge an obvious drop in public expectation. “I don’t know.” said Murray. “I haven’t gone out and asked the public or spoken to anyone asking whether they think I’m going to win the tournament or not. For me the pressure hasn’t changed.”

Topics: All England Club, Andy Murray, British tennis news, Fred Perry, John Mcenroe, Tommy Haas, Virginia Wade, Wimbledon