Murray Considers Skipping Clay Season After Painful Monte Carlo Loss
ATP
Andy Murray planned to play quite a few events after the Monte-Carlo Masters this year, but his early loss completely derailed his plans.
In the past few years, Murray hasn't played as many clay-court tournaments as he used to. That decision was made mostly to preserve his body. This year, he played at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Monte Carlo, but Alex de Minaur totally dominated against the Brit.
It was an easy win for the Australian player, who bested the former ATP World No. 1 player 6-1, 6-3. Speaking after the match, Murray admitted to not having any expectations, but after some solid practices, he was quite hopeful of a good outing, but this wasn't it.
"I’m pretty disappointed with it, to be honest, because I practised well last week. Obviously, I didn’t have high expectations going into the first tournament, I wasn’t expecting to play amazing tennis or feel great on the court, but certainly when you put a certain level of work in and that’s the performance that comes at the end of it, it’s pretty demoralising."
The loss had another effect on Murray as he is now unsure whether he should continue playing on clay. His chances could be higher at the Madrid Open, but he's looking more towards the ATP Challenger circuit.
"I have to have a long think about things with my team and what I do from here. There’s not really any options tournament-wise. Last year, we had looked into the possibility of playing potentially some hard court Challengers."
"But with the way the rules are now, like the ones that are over in Asia, for example, I can’t go and play them during Madrid and Rome. I’m not allowed to play elsewhere."
The defeat was still on Murray's mind during his post-match press conference, which was also one of the reasons why he couldn't really provide any clarity regarding his upcoming schedule.
"So it’s just whether I play the clay court season or whether I miss it. I have to have a long think about things with my team and what I do from here, in terms of where I train or do I stick on the clay. It was, it was pretty, pretty disappointing."
