Andy Murray turns the big 3-0 on Monday, a cause for celebration throughout the tennis world. But to Murray, the nice, round birthday won't mean much. Don't misinterpret: The Scot isn't down in the dumps about saying goodbye to his 20s. He's just never been that into birthdays. “I was talking to my team about that a bit yesterday, and everyone sort of says, 'Oh, when you're 30 or 40, they are huge birthdays.' I have never found that with any birthday,” Murray said during his pre-tournament press conference in Rome on Sunday. Part of the reason: Murray has been away from home for the past 15 of them. The last time he remembers being near his loved ones for...
Top seed Andy Murray could face another early challenge from a #NextGenATP star at next week’s Internazionali BNL d’Italia. After falling to 20-year-old Croatian Borna Coric in Madrid this week, Murray is seeded to meet in-form German Alexander Zverev, the leader of the Emirates ATP Race To Milan, in the third round. The Rome draw has also thrown up brutal first-round clashes: Juan Martin del Potro, playing just his second match of the clay season, faces 10th seed Grigor Dimitrov. Nick Kyrgios and Roberto Bautista Agut, the two highest-ranked players not to be seeded, will do battle. And 39-year-old Tommy Haas plays 38-year-old Ivo Karlovic in the oldest-combined match since Vina del Mar in 1982, when Ricardo Cano (30) defeated...
Andy Murray has been forgiving of himself this clay-court season as he returns from a right elbow injury, but didn’t hold back about his third-round performance against Borna Coric on Thursday at the Mutua Madrid Open. The World No. 1 hit 28 unforced errors in two sets and allowed the #NextGenATP Croatian to dominate the match. Having won Madrid in 2015 and finishing runner-up last year, the Brit knows his current form is below the level required to produce big runs at ATP World Tour Masters 1000 level events. “I definitely think I need to be concerned about today. It's not always the worst thing losing a match, but it's sometimes the manner of how you lose the match that...
Two-time champion Andy Murray returned to the clay with ease on Tuesday, gaining a routine 6-4, 6-3 win against Romanian qualifier Marius Copil on the Manolo Santana Centre Court at the Mutua Madrid Open. The top-seeded Murray improved to 11-0 in his opening matches in the Spanish capital, dating back to his debut in 2006. The Scot will meet #NextGenATP Croatian Borna Coric or French qualifier Pierre-Hugues Herbert. “When I started to control the points more towards the end of the first set and second set, I was hitting the ball pretty clean, creating a few chances. I didn't give him any opportunities,” Murray said. “It was good for the first match.” Murray is looking to kick-start his 2017 campaign...