By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Sunday September 27, 2020
Andy Murray was disappointed with his loss to Stan Wawrinka, but it hasn't stop him from being enthusiastic about playing on.
Photo Source: AP
After suffering one of his worst ever losses at a Grand Slam, Andy Murray says he is intent on soldiering on.
But he admits after his 6-1 6-3 6-2 defeat to Stan Wawrinka that he’ll likely never be the player he was in his prime, now that he’s 33 and coming off of multiple hip surgeries.
“I mean, from a physical perspective, I wouldn't expect to physically be the same as what I was before I had the operation,” he said.
Murray says his that there’s no reason he can’t continue to raise his game, and he feels that there’s plenty of room for improvement.
“There have been matches that I have played since I came back where I hit the ball well,” he said. “I mean, I know it wasn't the best match at times, but Zverev was a couple of points away from winning the US Open, and I won against him the week beforehand.”
Murray said that the real issue in Sunday’s loss wasn’t his health or his fitness, it was the fact that he didn’t execute his strokes, particularly on serve.
“You know, I served like under 40 percent first serves in the court, which that's just not good enough, really, against anyone, and especially someone as good as Stan,” he said. “You want to be serving in the 60 percent, that sort of region. You won't see many players serve under 40 percent the rest of the tournament. That's just not good enough. From there, that kind of allows whoever you're playing to kind of dictate more of the points. Yeah, that was clearly what happened out there tonight.”
Murray says he’s committed to getting on the hard courts as soon as he can, and he said he’s already making plans to play in Australia next year. Even if he doesn’t get back to his 2016 form, when he won Wimbledon and an Olympic gold medal and finished the year at No.1, he still is grateful to be playing the sport that he loves, and to do it in far better health than he would have imagined 18 months ago.
“It's going to be difficult for me to play the same level as I did before. I mean, I'm 33 now and I was ranked No. 1 in the world, so it's difficult with all the issues that I have had. But, yeah, I'll keep going. Let's see. Let's see what the next few months holds, and I reckon I won't play a match like [Sunday’s loss to Wawrinka] between now and the end of the year.