“I love this sport,” Murray said when asked what drives him to continue competing at age 35 despite a hip surgically repaired with a metal implant. “That’s essentially why I’m back and why I wanted to keep going: because I love the sport.”
Tennis has given Murray everything, as he put it in a wide-ranging interview, with a towel around his neck as he sat on the metal bleachers of a court at Rock Creek Park Tennis Center after practice. The first round of the tournament is on Monday.
A Glasgow native, he first traveled to the United States at age 11, he recalled. He also visited South America. And at 15 he moved to Spain to train at an academy.
“I loved that – learning about different cultures, meeting new people and having a certain independence,” Murray said.
Tennis introduced him to his future wife, Kim Sears, with whom he has four children, three girls and a boy ages 1 to 6.
He also brought trophies and triumphs he doesn’t list, including three Grand Slam titles, two Olympic singles golds and the distinction of being the only man to break the stranglehold Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal held on World No. 1. ranking for 18 years, from February 2004 to February 2022. Murray also restored a nation’s sporting pride by becoming the first Briton to win Wimbledon in 77 years in 2013 and again in 2016.
But the last few years have been difficult, marked by injuries and often debilitating pain.
After falling outside the top 800 in 2018 and undergoing a second hip surgery in 2019, Murray faced the prospect of a life without the sport he had been playing since he was 3 years old.
At 31, I wasn’t ready for that.
“Tennis has given me an amazing life,” said Murray. “It has also given me a purpose each day. There is a routine because you are always trying to get better and better at something. I enjoy that process.”
So he committed himself to the long work of coming back, convinced that if he could overcome the injuries, he would be able to play great tennis again.
At 6-foot-3 and a skinny 181 pounds, Murray is now smarter about managing his body. His training, both on the court and in the gym, is less about logging hours of ball strikes and power sets and more about specific, purposeful work.
“I probably would have liked a little more of that when I was younger,” he reflected.
As for his strengths, Murray boasts a deft touch and a wide repertoire of shots, including a rock-steady two-handed backhand, reliable slice and volley, effective serving and, at his best, an even return. better.
He has always been a skilled strategist, the son of Scottish tennis coach Judy Murray.
“In terms of tennis management, he’s outstanding,” said former player Brad Gilbert, who coached Murray in 2006-07. “He has great knowledge of what he does as a player and what his opponent does.”
To that foundation, Murray has added data and analysis, and he credits his on-and-off coach, Ivan Lendl, the Czech-born former No. 1, with introducing that element to his game.
“He doesn’t talk much,” Murray said of Lendl, an eight-time Grand Slam champion with whom Murray won all three of his majors. “He gives pretty simple messages and doesn’t overcomplicate things. But he is interested in data and analysis, which I am also interested in. And he’s a hard worker by nature and obviously he knows the amount of hours and effort that it takes for him to get to the top of the game.”
Murray had long considered the serve and return of serve to be the most important shots in the game.
The latter was once a fortress, but has let it down lately. During Friday practice against Arlington native Denis Kudla, he was guilty of considerable frustration and more than one swear word.
The problem, Murray explained afterwards, is that as players have gotten bigger and stronger over the past six years, the first serve has become more of a weapon. Not surprisingly, the percentage of return games won tour-wide is down 2 or 3 percent from 2016.
In the case of Murray, he confessed, the drop has been precipitous: 14 percent.
“If I can change that and make it better, that should, over time, make a big difference to my results on the court,” Murray said.
He has brought a similar analytical bent to broaden his perspective on issues off the court.
He wasn’t particularly outspoken as a rising star in his 20s, nor was he particularly knowledgeable. “To be perfectly honest,” he said, “I was in my own tennis bubble and not really focused on anything else.”
Today, Murray is considered a statesman of the game, willing to use his platform to advocate for causes he believes in, such as the need for a domestic violence policy on the men’s tour, equal opportunity and pay for female athletes, racial and social justice and the importance of vaccines in the midst of the pandemic.
In March, Murray announced that he would donate the prize money of the year to UNICEF’s program to help children in Ukraine. Citi Open president Mark Ein announced Saturday that the tournament would match whatever amount Murray won in Washington and create an online portal for tennis fans to contribute.
“What is happening in the Ukraine is horrible,” Murray said. “You can never exactly put yourself in their shoes; I am aware. But it must be absolutely terrifying, heartbreaking and terrifying. He wanted to do something, and the only thing he can probably offer is to give money to try to help children who are being displaced from their families.”
Murray traces her awakening to working with Amelie Mauresmo, the former No.1 whom she hired as her coach in 2014, and the skepticism and double standards she encountered as a result of hiring a female coach.
“Amelie was number one in the world and a great player, and a lot of the men I’ve worked with [as coaches] they were nowhere near that,” Murray said. “But if I lost a game, no one ever asked me if it was because of a [male] coach, whereas when I started working with Amelie and lost, the questions were ‘Do you feel like she’s the right person?’ A lot of people on TV were like, ‘Oh, she needs to change coaches.’ Even people within my own team, I stopped working with them because it was a problem for them too.
“It made me realize that there is a problem with that topic. And it was something that opened my eyes to other things. So I felt like when I saw what I perceived to be injustices, I tried to speak up about it.”
As he prepares to launch his hard-court preparation for the US Open, Murray continues to push to bring out the best in himself and the team around him.
Seeking more power and spin, he experimented with a new racket this year before concluding acclimatization wasn’t worth it, so he went back to his familiar frame. He changed coaches in March, bringing back Lendl, who will be in his box for the US Open, and adding former player Mark Hilton to further boost him as a traveling coach.
“A coach is there to challenge you,” Murray said. “I enjoy debating. Although I have played more than 900 matches on tour and been there for a long time, I still feel that I can learn.
And it’s making giant strides. In March, he earned his 700th career win, which has been among his goals. And he has climbed from No. 135 in the world at the start of the season to No. 50. His next goal is to improve his rankings enough to be seeded in major tournaments.
“There’s a lot of people who feel like maybe I shouldn’t be playing,” Murray admitted. “But I love tennis, and I love competing, and I feel like I can improve from where I am today. If I get to that point where I don’t feel like I can improve or maybe things are going backwards, then that could change my situation.”