Andy Murray took the positives from getting through three rounds of a Grand Slam event physically but couldn’t hide his disappointment at the manner of his Wimbledon exit to Denis Shapovalov.
Murray, the three-time Grand Slam champion from Dunblane, was well beaten on Centre Court on Friday night, with Shapovalov recording a 6-4 6-2 6-2 win.
While it was statistically the worst result of Murray’s Wimbledon career – in terms of games won – he did remarkably well to reach the third round.
The Scot is competing with a metal hip after a career-saving resurfacing operation in 2019 and had not played at the All England Club since hobbling out of the tournament four years ago.
All things considered, this was a positive result for Murray – as Shapovalov alluded to in his post-match interview – but such is the hunger of the two-time Wimbledon winner, he still wants more.
‘You know, this week has been really good in some ways, but it’s been frustrating too,’ said Murray in his post-match press conference.
‘I played two long matches, and it’s really significantly more than anything I have done in the last six months really.
‘So if my game is not quite spot-on physically, I’m not perfect, or physically, like, really fresh, it’s going to be hard for me.
‘It’s extremely frustrating, because, yeah, I feel like I put a lot of work into getting to this point, and then obviously to lose like that is tough. Being as good as he is. I don’t want to take anything away from his performance. He played really, really well.
‘But, you know, if I’m going to put that much effort in, I want to be performing better than what I did here. Even though there were some great moments.’
The target now is clear: stay healthy and get in that essential match practice required to bring his level back up to speed.
‘I mean, I got through, I guess, a week of a Slam without getting injured. So that’s positive,’ he added.
‘There was moments of I think really good tennis mixed in with some, you know, pretty bad moments. I should really have been off the court in three sets against Basilashvili. No excuse for that, you know, what happened in that match.
‘And you need all of your reserves, and to conserve as much energy as you can during these events. I messed up there. You know, I was a set and a break up against Otte and immediately lost three games on the spin and was the break down and then two sets to one down. Those sorts of things I could have put myself in a much better position going into today.
‘So, yeah, it was positive that I got through the event without getting hurt, but, yeah, negative, I guess, I feel like I can do better tennis-wise. I feel like I can play better and close matches out better.
‘But to do that, I need time on the match court and I need more time on the practice court, and I’ve had neither in the last few months.’
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