Andy Murray: ‘I knew I wasn’t going to do any major damage to hip by playing’ | Sport
With uncanny synchronicity, the electronic scoreboard behind Andy Murray clicked to show that Roger Federer, a monument to longevity, had broken Milos Raonic to lead 4-2 in their Wimbledon quarter-final just as the injured Scot was hinting he might not play again before the US Open, which begins on 28 August â€" 20 days after the Swiss’s 36th birthday.
Murray, who turned 30 in May, lost in five sets against Sam Querrey, and is feeling the rigours of the game more than he might have imagined after rising to world No1 last November. He was sanguine in defeat, an ordeal stretched over two hours and 42 minutes on Centre Court that clearly strained his throbbing hip to the limit of his pain threshold.
He was not relieved to be out of the tournament, he said, less worried about the prospect of losing his No1 ranking (which he will keep anyway after Novak Djokovic’s withdrawal), and is perhaps quietly happy to finally have some time to rest a chronic injury that flared to crisis point at just the wrong time.
“Before the tournament [planning] was very short term, because you want to play Wimbledon,†Murray said, reflecting on nine days in which he won four matches with varying degrees of conviction and hobbled into the quarter-finals in obvious distress.
When Querrey overcame a slow start to serve him out of the Championships with 27 aces on a mild and windless afternoon, winning 3-6, 6-4 6-7 (4), 6-1, 6-1, a sense of deflation spread through the tournament.
“You want to play all of the slams and give your best there. I managed to get through a bunch of matches and did OK. Now I’ll sit down with my team and look at the next step, look a little bit longer term. The US Open is six, seven weeks away. I’ll get the best advice I can, then stick with that. If it means taking a few weeks’ rest, then so be it. If it means training and doing the right rehab, then I’ll do that.â€
Murray refused to describe the nature of the injury, and speculation among armchair experts ranged from hip-flexor strain to osteoarthritis, which often plagues long-career athletes. Whatever it is, it plainly turned Murray from the lightning-quick saviour of lost causes into a sitting duck. “I’m not going to go into all the details of exactly what my hip issues are,†he said. “I’ve been dealing with it for a very long time. As you get older, things are a bit tougher to manage than they are when you’re younger. There’s more wear and tear. I’m sure I’ll be able to get through it.
“I feel like I’ve done all of the right stuff, but I’ll try to do more, try to get myself in better shape. Hopefully I’ll come through the other side of it a better player, a better athlete.
“I knew I wasn’t going to do any major damage by playing. I wanted, if possible, to find a way at the end. Sam served great. The end of the fourth set and fifth set, he hardly missed any first serves. He was acing me pretty much every time. I wasn’t getting enough power on my serve to put him in any bother. He was dictating all of the points.â€
After his defeat, Murray also corrected one reporter who stated that Sam Querrey was the first American player to reach the semi-final of a grand slam since 2009. “Male player,†Murray interrupted.
As for his ranking, which he ripped away from Djokovic in a frantic charge over the latter part of 2016, and speaking before his rival retired from his match, Murray said: “I haven’t played well enough this year to deserve to stay there for much longer. If it doesn’t happen by the end of this tournament, it will happen by the end of the US Open.â€
As Murray was heading home to Oxshott, 11 miles away in north Surrey, to recover with his wife Kim and daughter Sophia, Federer was still in cruise control, two sets up against Milos Raonic, and heading for his 101st match at Wimbledon, and a record 12th semi-final.
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