DOHA – Andy Murray continues with the perfume that remained from the Australian Open: he smells of victory after long battles with players much younger than him.
In his debut at the ATP 250 in Doha, he beat the Italian Lorenzo Sonego 4-6, 6-1 and 7-6(4), and such a performance added to the trend, so typical of his career, which he highlighted in Melbourne with his epics against Matteo Berrettini and Thanasi Kokkinakis. Matches that reached the deciding set and in which it was previously removed match points against, or came back from being break below.
And what is it like for Murray, a guy who has played more than 900 games, to be in situations where there is no room for error? What does one of the great champions of the time feel when he faces the electricity of five of a kind in the final round?
Stress levels increase considerably and for many tennis players, that pressure consumes them, eats them away, shortens their arms and makes them err. Al Briton, with that lineage of a top player, deeply analyzes how moments like this are his food, the source of his best tennis.
“I focus better, I find it easier to concentrate on decisive instances. It has helped me a lot in my career. I find a strength of my own in those moments, and because I reach such a high degree of concentration that my decision-making on the pitch improves,” he told reporters in Doha: “One of my greatest strengths is my tactical awareness in matches.” .
And he explained that it is at the beginning of the matches, or with the account still looking very flat, when it is most difficult for him to focus: “The scoreboard does not help, but as it progresses and the pressure increases, I get stronger mentally and my tennis improves”. For the same reason, she feels that she has performed so well at Wimbledon, an event where attention to her figure grows and the pressure is exerted greatly.
Andy Murray in his ATP debut in Doha // SAMER ALREJJAL – QATAR TENNIS
Melbourne’s salary
The impressive matches the Scotsman won in Australia were special: “I gained a lot of confidence. More confident than ever before in my career from a physical standpoint because of what I was able to do there. He made me believe in my physical ability, something that in the last four or five years he had not given me. I never really believed in my body like I did in my twenties. So it’s a very positive thing for me.”
It is obvious that physically Murray is not the same. At the age of the rivals he dispatched in Australia, he moved better and faster on the court. He trained one hundred percent, today he must save himself for the games. After duels as demanding as the ones this Monday in Doha, or those in Melbourne, the next day, the 35-year-old’s body wakes up sore, but he does feel capable of competing fully when he returns to the field for the round following.
Two or three years ago, in the difficult return to competition with an iron hip, and even at the end of 2022, my confidence was lost. The unexpected moments of Melbourne gave it back to him, and the old Murray today is not afraid of his body in long-term races.
PHOTO: Qatar Tennis Federation
