An Energized Andy Murray Ready For Battle In Tokyo This Week

Written by: Staff on 3rd October 2012

An Energized Andy Murray Ready For Battle In Tokyo This Week

epa03419456 Andy Murray of Britain returns the ball to Lukas Lacko of Slovakia during their second round match in the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships tournament in Tokyo Japan, 03 October 2012. Andy Murray won. EPA/TOMOYUKI KAYA |

US Open champion and Olympic gold medalist Andy Murray has reassessed his goals and ambitions now that he has won that elusive Grand Slam title. Before his New York triumph the 25 year-old Scot viewed winning a major as all important but in the last three weeks he has re-evaluated and sees new targets like becoming the world no.1 and providing top level performances in his each tournament he plays.

This week Murray is in Tokyo , aiming to retain the Rakuten Japan Open title he won last year. Then he will head to China for the Shanghai Rolex Masters where again he will be defending champion.

Current world no.3 Murray said: “Maybe I feel a little bit more responsibility after what has happened to me in the last couple of months. I was so, I don’t want to say ‘obsessed’ with winning a grand slam, but it was so important to me.

“Sometimes during the year in certain matches I haven’t done myself justice. I felt after the US Open that I needed to reset some goals. I was always focusing on the next grand slam rather than every tournament and every match I played.

“Now I feel like I can hopefully concentrate better, take more responsibility for my performances in every tournament throughout the year. I want to stop taking my eye off the ball in the other tournaments because all I’m thinking about is the next major.”

Murray will attempt to win his second major at January’s Australian Open, which now boasts the biggest prize pot in tennis after officials announced a £2.6million rise, more than $4.83m in excess of Wimbledon .

But first Murray insists there is much to play for in the remainder of 2012. After his exemplary Asian swing of 2011 that saw him win the titles of Bangkok , Tokyo and Shanghai in as many weeks, he ended the year tired and injured, playing only two more tournaments including the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London where he quit after just one match because of a strained groin.

He said: “You need to concentrate on winning the matches. You can’t improve your ranking if you can’t do that, so I’ll try and win as many matches as I can to finish the year.

“I’d also like to play well in the Tour Finals in London . I didn’t have the chance to do that last year and that was a very disappointing way for me to finish the year. I want to make sure I’m 100 per cent fit and healthy for that tournament and try and finish the year well there.”

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Topics: Andy Murray, Rakuten Japan Open, Shanghai Tennis Masters, Sports, Tennis News, Tokyo Open, US Open 2012