Andy Murray Will Rest Then Switch To Clay

Written by: Staff on 1st April 2013

Sony Open tennis tournament on Key Biscayne, Florida

Andy Murray Will Rest Then Switch To Clay

epa03646383 Andy Murray of Great Britain serves against David Ferrer of Spain during their men's final match at the Sony Open tennis tournament in Miami, Florida, USA, 31 March 2013. Murray defeated Ferrer in a third set tie-breaker EPA/RHONA WISE |

Andy Murray will take four days off after again proving himself sufficiently fit to beat the game’s supposed iron-men, and then get back to the hard work in preparation for the upcoming European clay court swing.

The Sony Open champion and newly installed world no.2 has opted out of Britain’s Davis Cup meeting with Russia this weekend in the Euro/African Zone Group One at Coventry and will instead use clay courts in Miami.

Murray spent four weeks as world no.2 three and a half years ago but he now looks likely to hold the position until Wimbledon. “It’s good,” he said. “It’s something I have been asked about a lot in the last few weeks and it’s nice to get there so I can go into the clay court season just focused on improving and going forward rather than worrying about rankings or seedings.

“The clay is never going to be my most successful surface but I’ve had some good results; semis of the French Open, Monte Carlo and Rome. So I can play some decent tennis on the stuff. But I will need to work extremely hard because I haven’t played on the clay for ten and a half months now.

“It always takes me a bit of time to get used to it so after a few days rest I will start working on the clay here in Miami on Friday and then head over to Monte Carlo a week on Wednesday.”

Beating David Ferrer 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 in mid-day temperatures high in the 90’s and humidity brutal showed the benefits of Murray’s physical regime in the same way as his US Open final win over Novak Djokovic on a chilly New York evening last September. On both occasions Murray seemed to be heading for defeat only for his opponents to suffer physical problems; Djokovic with a groin strain and Ferrer falling prey to leg cramps.

“It was a brutal, brutal match,” said Murray who also won the Miami prize in 2009 and owns an apartment just across the Rickenbacker Causeway from Key Biscayne’s Crandon Park Tennis Center. “It was so tough physically and mentally that you were just trying to play each point.

“I don’t think either of us played our best tennis. There were a lot of breaks and ups and downs, quite a lot of mistakes from both of us. But what I did do was fight hard, showed good mental strength to get through that match because it easily could have slipped away.”

Television demands from March Madness college basketball dictated the match had an early start and CBS ended their coverage long before the climax of the match. “At most tournaments we now play the finals in the evening so we don’t have the really matches right in the heat of the day like we do here in Miami,” said Murray.

The Scot admitted he benefited from good fortune when he was match point down to Ferrer. “I just got a little bit of luck and hit the very back of the baseline and Hawk-Eye showed the ball was in,” he said. “That’s the beauty of the challenge system.”

©Daily Tennis News Wire

Topics: Andy Murray, British tennis news, clay court tennis, Novak Djokovic, Sony Open