By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Tuesday October 12, 2021
Andy Murray battled through two wins at Indian Wells, defeating rising phenom Carlos Alcaraz in a three hour and three-minute barnburner to reach the third round.
It was an impressive pair of victories for Murray, who also beat Adrian Mannarino routinely in his opening match, but that didn’t help ease the disappointment of losing to No.3-seeded Alexander Zverev on Tuesday, 6-4, 7-6(4).
Murray says he just didn’t play his best and something needs to change.
“I'm disappointed because, I mean, I obviously want to be winning these matches,” he said. “I haven't in the last few months. Yeah, something needs to change.”
The 34-year-old is taking some consolation from the fact that he was right there with Zverev, and both sets really could have gone either way.
“The positive for me to take from it is I obviously had opportunities again,” he said. “Yeah, I mean, I guess that's positive. I didn't feel like I played a great match and still had chances, so that's positive.”
Murray has made progress over the last two months, playing in seven events and 15 matches, and in his last three tournaments at Metz, San Diego and Indian Wells, it took top notch talent to knock him out. He lost to Hubert Hurkacz in Metz, Casper Ruud at San Diego and Zverev today. But these are the matches that Murray wants to start winning.
But even in defeat there is solace to be taken. The body is holding up – now the game, and the decision-making that he has always relied on to outfox opponents – just has to follow.
“This is physically the best I've felt for a while,” Murray said. “I'm sort of battling my game a little bit. Yeah, the consistency isn't there. I don't know, the decision making is not great in the important moments still… I guess moments that I was always – I think for the most part – very strong in, and I haven't been this year. So disappointed with that.”