Previously, former world number 1 Andy Murray announced that he would not play on clay in the 2022 season, but it looks like he changed his mind.
The 2022 Madrid Open is an ATP 1000 clay-court event where Andy Murray triumphed twice in the past. And it seems that it's also the event that made him change his mind about not playing on clay in the 2022 season, as he accepted a wild card into the event.
In this stage of his career, the three-time Grand Slam champion is focusing only at the tournaments that he has a chance to succeed at, and therefore, skipping the clay-court part of the season, during which he didn't have a lot of success in the past, is a sensible decision.
Before the players turned their focus to the red clay, the two-time Olympic gold medalist explained his decision to skip the clay-court part of the season, explaining that he doesn't want to make his physical issues worse.
"Right now I am not planning on playing through the clay. The past couple of years, the clay has made issues worse; last year I had some issues at the beginning of the year, the clay didn't help, so I've spoken to my team about that and this year, while I feel good and healthy, I don't want to take that risk.”
However, after accepting the wild card, Murray will join a star-studded field at the 2022 Madrid Open, which includes the likes of Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Carlos Alcaraz, Alexander Zverev, and many more.
His sudden u-turn on the previous decision also suggests that Murray is really eager to compete on the tennis court, something he has been known for throughout his tennis career. However, his participation in Madrid still doesn't mean that he will compete at any more ATP events during this year's clay-court part of the year.
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