ANDY MURRAY would be the first to admit he is not much of a party animal so it was no surprise last night to hear the Scot reveal that he has spent much of the week after helping Britain to Davis Cup glory lying on the sofa.
Murray’s heroics in Belgium ensured the Davis Cup came home to Britain for the first time in 79 years, his 11 wins out of 11, in singles and doubles, achieving a feat even he must have felt was a remote possibility for much of his career.
His two singles wins and his doubles triumph with brother Jamie took Britain to a 3-1 win in Belgium last weekend and though there were plenty of media commitments, Murray said it had been a draining, if fantastic, experience.
“It’s been a nice week,” he said last night at London’s Royal Albert Hall where he was taking part in Tie Break Tens, a new quickfire format involving a series of first-to-10 tiebreaks.
“We didn’t get back until Monday afternoon and then Monday night we all went out for dinner. It does take a lot out of you, Davis Cup weeks, because we went out for dinner and for the first hour and a half everyone was on great form but we started getting tired pretty quickly.
“On Tuesday, we had some commitments – we went to Downing Street and stuff – and then I slept most of Tuesday and Wednesday during the day. I was just really tired, on the sofa sleeping, not doing a whole lot. That’s really it, I haven’t done much more than that.”
Murray played 85 singles matches in 2015, the most of his career, and he will be back on court in a couple of weeks when he plays two matches at the Indian Premier Tennis League in Dubai, having replaced Novak Djokovic in the line-up.
With his wife, Kim, due to have their first child in February, Murray knows he has one more big push at the Australian Open next month before he can have some sort of rest, baby aside.
And last night former world No.1 John McEnroe, who is also playing in the short-format event, said the Scot’s Davis Cup exploits could help him win in Melbourne, where has lost in four finals, three of them to Djokovic.
“He has had an extremely long year so he is going to need a break,” McEnroe said.
“[But] he’s been in four Australian Open finals so he could potentially use it to his advantage, it is something that could help him get over the hump because he could be a bit sharper than normal, and he’s already had great results there.
“Obviously Novak, though, is going to say ‘ha, ha I got a little rest’ so it’s mentally how you deal with it when it comes down to that moment if they were to play again.”
Murray is due to leave on Thursday for a short training programme in Dubai, where he is also set to be reunited with his coach, Amelie Mauresmo.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel