Andy Murray of Great Britain is a familiar face for tennis fans in Doha. The 35-year-old managed to reach his fifth singles final against Daniil Medvedev of Russia at the US$ 1.4 million Qatar ExxonMobil Open where he delivered memorable wins to reach the title clash.
ANDY Murray is one of the senior pros on the ATP Tour. But at age 35, he is still giving his younger rivals a run for their money. He did exactly that at last month’s Qatar ExxonMobil Open where he entered the field on a wildcard. Not many thought he would go all the way to the final but he did. With mum Judy watching from the stands, Murray reeled off wins against Lorenzo Sonego of Italy, Alexander Zverev of Germany, Alexandre Muller of France and Jiri Lehecka of the Czech Republic before losing to Daniil Medvedev of Russia in the final.
“Yeah, it was an incredible week. Obviously I didn’t finish how I wanted. I had some amazing matches here, created some great memories and yeah, fantastic to be back in a final year again and again against an incredible player in the final. Daniil is one of my favourite players to watch and one of the best players on the Tour. It was great for me to get that opportunity to play against someone of his level and a final again and definitely some things for me to work on but I’m proud of my week and the work that me and my team have put in to get me back to this stage,” Murray said after getting the runners-up trophy for the third time in Doha.
“I made a few more mistakes than what I would have hoped for. I got off to bad starts in both sets, which obviously doesn’t help. Most top players play well when they’re ahead. I gave him the opportunity to do that by not starting well enough in the two sets,” the Briton said. The three-time Grand Slam champion said he has set himself goals in the 2023 season.
“I have goals. I think it’s important to have goals and targets and some of those goals are different to maybe what they were five, ten years ago. But I still have ambitions of winning tournaments and having deep runs in major events, winning a certain number of matches in my career. I’d like to try to get to 800 match wins (he has 723 currently), which, I don’t know, I think I’m like 75 away from that. There are little things that you can do to keep yourself motivated. Also part of it is seeing how far I can go with the physical limitation that I have. Like I didn’t know how much I was going to be able to play or if I’d be able to compete at this level again,” Murray said. “So now that I know that I’m able to, I want to see how far that can go because it’s a challenge and something that I’m proud of the results that I’m having with a large physical limitation.”
Murray candidly admitted that Daniil Medvedev remains a tough player to beat. “He has a different game style to how most players play now. Obviously some players return from quite far behind the baseline, but I think he’s probably the furthest and does that consistently. Most players might return there sometimes but change the position a little bit, but he returns from very far back. Most of the players that do this are returning and playing with a lot of topspin. He does the opposite. He hits the ball very low and flat over the net, which is different. He also often, like when the ball comes through the middle of the court, I think pretty much maybe there is only one or two players, like Benoit Paire maybe does this where they run around the forehand to hit backhands, but it’s rare to see that. Most players are looking to play with their forehand in the middle of the court and play with a sort of heavy topspin to push you behind the baseline, whereas he is moving the other way and hitting the ball very low and flat,” Murray explained. “He doesn’t hit the ball extremely hard, so often you’re working with not so much pace on the ball. You have to generate the power. But because he moves extremely well, it’s difficult to finish the points against him. One of the ways of doing it is by coming up to the net when you get the chance. It’s not so easy to pass from very deep in the court, but in the final he did a pretty good job of that. He came up with some really good passing shots at times, and I maybe came in on some of the wrong balls. He just has a different game style to most of the guys, and he’s a great athlete as well. He moves extremely well,” he added,
Murray said he felt fine physically despite playing draining matches en route to the final. “Actually I felt okay physically. After some of the long rallies, you know, my legs at times were feeling a little bit heavy, but I felt okay physically. That’s the one thing thing I am reflecting on now, I didn’t feel like I used the crowd as much as I could have done, or after the good points, like, had maybe as much energy as I have in sort of recent times and probably wish I had done that a little bit more, because I feel like when I’m expressing myself like emotionally like that’s when I play my best tennis. So maybe part of it was because I was always sort of behind. I didn’t have so much momentum in the match. But, yeah, probably (I) could have done that better. But physically, considering everything, I was quite happy with how I felt,” Murray said. “So at my age and with some of the issues that I’ve got, I do have to be mindful of those things (playing five matches in six days), and I can’t just just keep going until something happens.I need to be a bit smarter with that.”
Murray dismissed Medvedev’s concern over balls used in Doha. “Oh, really? I didn’t hear that,” Murray said when reminded that Medvedev complained about the balls. “I think they are the same balls that we were using at the Australian Open. When they’re new they are extremely fast, but very quickly they become very slow. They are the same as we have been playing the last couple of months. Generally on tour now we play with very slow conditions and slow tennis balls, so it’s nothing new,” he said.
Did Murray expect to reach the final before coming to Doha? Murray said: “That’s a difficult question. I knew I was playing well. I had been practicing very well. The two weeks before coming here I was feeling good on the court. I told that to my team, and also when I was talking with the guys I was practicing with that I was feeling good about my game. This week we could have ended very differently, as well. I was match points down in the first round. You know, could have lost against Zverev. Could have lost against Lehecka as well. But the way that I have played in the really important moments, in the critical moments, has shown that there is a confidence there and a belief in my game that’s been missing for a while. I’m really happy about that.”
