Andy Murray Might Skip French Open

Written by: Staff on 16th May 2013

Andy Murray Might Skip French Open

epa03701503 A composite pocture shows British tennis player Andy Murray (R) receiving treatment during his second round match against Spain's Marcel Granollers at the Italian Open tennis tournament at Foro Italico in Rome, Italy, 15 May 2013. Murray retired from the match due to a hip injury. EPA/ALESSANDRO DI MEO |

Andy Murray, set to be named second seed for the French Open in just a few days, maintains he is highly doubtful to even arrive at Roland Garros, let alone hit a ball in anger.

The Scot endured an unhappy 26th birthday as he suffered a recurrence of the lower back injury which has troubled him intermittently for the last 18 months.

Murray still managed to win a second set tiebreak in his initial match in the Internazionale BNL d’Italia against Spaniard Marcel Granollers but then immediately quit and an hour later was ready to break even more concerning news.

“I pulled out because there was a good chance I wouldn’t be playing tomorrow even if I was able to get through,” Murray said. “I would be very surprised if I was playing in Paris. The whole year I try to peak for the Slams and get in the best shape possible for them.

“Depending on what happens at the French Open I will obviously do everything I can to make sure I’m 100 per cent for the next Slam, which is Wimbledon,” he added. “But we’ll have to wait and see.”

The US Open champion is suffering the same lower back issues that agonized him a year ago and required a series of excruciatingly painful epidural injections that allowed him to play in the French Open where he reached quarterfinals before losing to David Ferrer.

Murray first felt the disc problem in his lower back at the end of 2011 and it troubled him for much of the early part of 2012. He had eight pain-killing injections before last year’s French Open, where the problem surfaced again when he suffered back spasms playing against Jarkko Nieminen.

Famously he was accused of being a ‘drama queen’ by British tennis matriarch Virginia Wade, a claim he later refuted with considerable anger and he resents the observations of the 1977 Wimbledon champion.

Murray feels play on clay courts cause his back the most stress. He explained: “I think the shots that hurt get exaggerated more on clay. Obviously when it’s a back issue, rotation tends to be the problem.

“On clay, with the ball coming through a lot slower, to generate power you rotate more. There’s no pace coming to you from the court and also the ball bounces higher and there’s less stability with your movement. So all those things combined don’t really help.”

Murray is understandably not a fan of too many injections. “Obviously they can help a bit with pain and they can take some of the inflammation away, but they didn’t make me feel 100% – and I want to feel 100%,” he said. “It’s been an issue for a while now. I want to make sure it goes away and doesn’t become something that I’m playing with for a long, long time. It’s not enjoyable when you’re playing in pain.”

Murray took some rest after being troubled by the back again at last week’s Mutua Madrid Masters, but said that had made little difference. “There’s not one thing that makes it feel much better,” he said. “Some days are better than others. In the last couple of years it’s been the biggest issue for me.

“The quicker courts help. The lower bounces, a bit more pace off the surface, that helps. There are a few shots that hurt, but I might be playing guys in 10 days’ time so I don’t want them to know which ones. There are a few shots worse than others. That’s why it’s frustrating.”

©Daily Tennis News Wire

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