For the Love of Tennis, Murray Focuses on His Own Journey

By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Wednesday June 14, 2023

Fresh off a challenger title on the grass in Surbition in which he dropped just one set in five matches, Andy Murray is picking up steam on the grass, and hoping to make a mark at Wimbledon.

The 36-year-old Scot, ranked 44 this week, didn’t have that highest profile title on tour last week. That honor goes to Novak Djokovic, who claimed his 23rd major title on Sunday in Paris to become the all-time Grand Slam men’s singles title leader. Nevertheless, Murray is loving life on tour and happy that he can serve as an inspiration to others.

“I would love to be competing for Grand Slams and be in that position,” Murray told the ATP. “I’m also aware that what [Novak has] done is incredible and what he’s still doing at his age is brilliant – but we have completely different journeys, what happened with my hip while I was at the peak of my career was really unfortunate.”

Murray, who reached the third round at the Australian Open in dramatic fashion earlier this season, says that he isn’t trying to live up to any expectations but his own these days. He’s playing for the love of the sport, and it’s beautiful to watch.

“You can’t always be comparing yourself to other people when they are more successful than you,” he said. “I’ve probably learned that more as I’ve gotten older. When I was in my mid-twenties, a lot of the questions would get asked like, ‘When are you going to do this? These guys around you are always winning.’

“And I always wanted what they had, but I think once I started to accept that I should not be comparing myself to other people and just focus on my own journey and work as hard as I possibly can to achieve the goals I want to, that’s all you can do and I’m still doing that now.

“Whether I win another Grand Slam or winning Challengers is the peak for me now, I’m okay with that because I’m doing what I love to do.”

Murray is in action at the Rothesay Open challenger this week, in Nottingham. The top-seeded wild card will face Frances Hugo Grenier in the second round.