Multiple hip surgeries have robbed Andy Murray of the elite speed he showed as world No. 1.
The 33-year-old Murray says he's spending offseason training focusing on getting as strong and as fit as he's ever been.
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In a new Roland Garros video chat with Daniela Hantuchova, the two-time Olympic gold-medal champion outlined his fitness goals.
"There’s been key certain exercises that I’m doing which I’ve been doing throughout my whole career where yes it’s very difficult as you get older to obviously get fitter and stronger and all those things, but like this offseason for me usually my offseason has been four or five weeks whereas this time it’s 10 weeks," Murray told Hantuchova at about the seven-minute mark of the video below. "So it’s giving me the opportunity to work on those things.
"The one thing that hasn’t gotten to the level that it used to be yet, is the speed, which I spoke about as well. And that’s the one thing that maybe won’t get to where it was. But all of the other things—like the strength and the endurance and those things—they can."
The three-time Grand Slam champion knocked off world No. 7 Alexander Zverev at the Western & Southern Open in August and rallied from a two-set deficit for the 10th time in his career defeating Yoshihito Nishioka in five sets in his US Open opener.
Murray maintains a simple goal for 2021 and beyond: give the game his best shot.
"I’m wanting to give these last few years the best shot that I have," Murray said. "Because actually when I came back and played like in New York at the US Open I felt really, really good physically on the court. My tennis wasn’t as I would have liked, but then I picked up this injury, after my first match in New York, and then it kind of ruined the end of the year for me.
"I just don’t want that to happen again. Obviously, it could, but the best way to avoid that is obviously to get as strong as possible and as fit as possible to try and reduce the chances of it, so I can give the next few years a good go. So that’s kind of what I want to do and hopefully it works out.”
Photo credit: US Open Facebook