Andy Murray demands more of himself as mysterious cramp issues continue to plague his game

It was an insight into the frustration still lingering from the night before, when he wasted the opportunity to serve out a straight-sets victory against France’s Gilles Simon and suffered a sudden physical slump. Hindered by yet another bout of cramp, he struggled to keep up with the pace towards the end of his 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 defeat that lasted two hours and 50 minutes.

“Having that happen after a set and a half on an indoor court where it’s not particularly hot is really not acceptable,” Murray told the Daily Mail. “There’s no guarantee that I win that match but when you lose matches and it feels like it’s down to your physicality, it’s really, really disappointing. The reality is I need to work harder.”

It did not go unnoticed by the man on the other side of the court. This was only the third time Simon – who is playing the final tournament of his career at the age of 37 – had beaten Murray in 19 encounters.

“It has been very difficult to win against him, and each time I was in a position to, I lost,” Simon said. “I’m happy this time it went the other way around. But there was something indeed: he really decreased physically at a point in the match. He could play eight hours without any problem in the past.”

It is natural that Murray, at the age of 35, is not as physically sharp as he once was. Add to this the metal hip installed on his right side, and it is a triumph that he is able to step on the court at all – no player has ever made a successful singles comeback after such an operation. Yet he cannot help but feel exasperated as his season comes to a close.

As he alluded to before his match in Paris, rising from a world ranking of No 134 at the start of this year to, at present, No 48 would be considered something to celebrate for most, but not if you are a former world No 1 with three grand-slam singles titles and two Olympic gold medals to your name.

This is the third consecutive year in which Murray has failed to win a piece of silverware – two runner-up finishes at smaller ATP 250 tournaments in Sydney and Stuttgart are as close as he got. On a tour in which slow hard courts have become the norm, it has been challenging for Murray to prevail in the longer rallies.

Historically, Murray’s style has relied heavily on his physical attributes in defence. While he insists his hip is pain free, the mysterious cramp issues have had a clear impact. There have also been several occasions in which confidence has eluded him, having failed to close out sets and matches from advantageous positions.

“When I have watched him play, I don’t think he’s been all that far away,” Mark Petchey, a former coach of Murray, said. “There are glimpses of the way that he can play. He’s not out here to be ranked 40-something in the world. His ambition privately would be to be in the top ten because that’s where he feels he should belong.

“It’s tricky in a lot of the conditions that we have out on tour. If you’re not able to get through the opponents with your forehand to some degree, it is incredibly difficult to consistently put in deep runs [in tournaments], especially when you are not seeded.”

This will continue to be a challenge for Murray next season. He has committed to playing all four grand-slam tournaments, including a return to the French Open clay, but is now all but certain to miss his target of a top-32 seeding at January’s Australian Open. He has not reached the second week (fourth round) of a major tournament since Wimbledon in 2017.

The 26 matches Murray has won this year are the most in a single season since he reached world No 1 in 2016, at least pointing to some improvements in his consistency. But Petchey believes a review of his approach to the tour is required if Murray, who has won 46 titles, is to reach the half-century mark before he retires. “He is going to have to change his mindset from being potentially consistent throughout the course of a calendar year at this stage of his career to having a highlight package that maybe consists of four or five events,” Petchey said.

“Rather than trying to be as consistent as he was, instead, roll the dice a little bit more. But the events where you roll the dice and come up with a couple of double sixes are the events where you are going to walk home and add to that trophy cabinet. He’s got 46 titles, he wants to get 50. If he’s going to do that in the time span his body will allow him to play, he’s going to have to take the muffles off.”

– The Times

Originally published as Andy Murray demands more of himself as mysterious cramp issues continue to plague his game