Andy Murray Details How He is at a Different Stage of His Comeback Compared to Roger Federer

Published 03/22/2021, 5:30 AM EDT

Veteran British tennis star Andy Murray has opened up on his mindset on his return to competitive tennis.

In an interview with Amazon Prime Video, the three-time Grand Slam champion was asked if he could personally relate to Roger Federer, who was away from the game for 14 months to recover from his second knee surgery.

Having skipped all events last season post the Australian Open, Federer withdrew from this year’s action at the Melbourne Park saying he didn’t want to rush his comeback till he felt absolutely sure of competing and winning at the highest level again.

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Much like Federer, Murray was happy to be playing again after returning to action

In a recent interview, the 20-time Grand Slam champion had said that the reason he didn’t travel to the Australian Open was that he didn’t feel like he could win the tournament.

Asked if he entertained similar thoughts as Federer after his initial comeback at the Queens last year, Murray said that he was just “happy to be on the court, playing again”.

“I’d missed it (playing) a lot, hadn’t been pain-free on the court for a very long time,” the two-time Wimbledon champion said.

However, Murray added that with matches under his belt, his confidence grew and he felt more assured of competing hard and winning again.

Andy Murray says with more matches under his belt, he feels he can compete against top players

As the belief that he could compete against top players and beat them took deeper roots in him, Murray’s “expectations and goals,” too, changed.

“I know that I’m still capable of playing at the highest level,” Murray said, adding that he had a chat with his team before the Australian Open this year and he told them that he believed that he could “still go deep” in the tournament.

As it turned out, however, the Scot later tested positive for COVID-19 and skipped the Australian Open as he couldn’t come to an agreement with tournament organizers on quarantine arrangements.

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Looking ahead, Murray said that his primary goal would be to not just compete in events but also to put himself in contention for titles.

While conceding that while tournaments right now would be a tad too “ambitious”, he might rediscover that old fire to lift titles again with more game time.

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Priyabrata Chowdhury is a tennis author for EssentiallySports. He has been a print journalist for a decade, producing news pages for leading national dailies such as the Hindustan Times and The New Indian Express. His passion for sports eventually drove him to tennis writing.

Andy Murray Details How He is at a Different Stage of His Comeback Compared to Roger Federer

Much like Federer, Murray was happy to be playing again after returning to action

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Andy Murray says with more matches under his belt, he feels he can compete against top players