Andy Murray will not be playing at the 2022 Roland Garros with the sole aim of preparing for Wimbledon.
Murray is celebrating his 35th birthday this weekend and had announced his plans to skip the whole clay-court season. The Scotsman, however, had a change of heart and took a wild card at the Madrid Open earlier this month.
He scored shock wins over Dominic Thiem and Denis Shapovalov to secure an unlikely round of 16 showdown against his old rival Novak Djokovic. But Murray withdrew from their match ahead of schedule because of illness, which has been confirmed as a bout of food poisoning.
The three-time Grand Slam champion played some of his best tennis this year in the Spanish capital, probably even better than what he showed in Sydnery in January when he reached the final of the hard-court event.
Murray's main focus, for now, is preparing for Wimbledon. He was willing to sacrifice the French Open, and he's done that by withdrawing from the clay-court major.
In fact, the former World No. 1 has played just one match on clay since undergoing hip surgery before this year's Madrid Open. And that was in 2020 when he lost to Stan Wawrinka at Roland Garros.
Given the nature of his operation, it makes sense that he wants to put less strain on his body. Clay is such a demanding surface that calls for endurance, and the higher bouncing balls and longer rallies will put more stress on his surgically repaired hip.
It will be interesting to see where Murray intends to get some minutes under his belt before Wimbledon, which is set to kick off on June 27th. He has confirmed Ivan Lendl as his new coach for a second stint.
It is possible that Murray will want to play at the Surbiton Trophy to fine-tune his game with lesser-ranked opponents before going to Queen's and then Wimbledon. But he risks not receiving any ranking points for playing in those tournaments.
0 Comments