Murray Feeling Flat Since Davis Cup

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Murray Feeling Flat Since Davis Cup

After his three-set victory over Pierre-Hugues Herbert, Andy Murray tells reporters that he’s not been at his best for a while.

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“I've definitely been a little bit flat since the Davis Cup really,” Murray said after reaching the third round of the Monte-Carlo Masters on Tuesday. “I don't know exactly why that's been the case. But in a lot of my matches, it's been that way, you know, some good stuff mixed in with some pretty bad stuff. The norm is bad just now, so I need to kind of improve on that. You know, even when I'm not playing my best, play more solid, make it more difficult for my opponents.”

Thanks to his Davis Cup brilliance, Murray has been taxed with a very difficult travel and playing schedule for the last year and a quarter. In February he led the British Davis Cup team to a first-round victory over Japan, but it won’t stop there. After Wimbledon Murray and his team will visit Serbia for the World Group quarterfinals, and a few weeks after he’ll defend his Olympic gold medal in Rio. Add to that the fact that Murray became a father in February, and the World No. 2’s future looks like it could clearly be an issue as the year progresses.

> After starting his season with a run to the Australian Open finals and three Davis Cup victories that included a difficult five-setter over Kei Nishikori, Murray wasn’t able to win more than a match at Indian Wells or Miami. But the two-time major champion doesn’t think it’s a cause for concern.

“When I've been playing well, I'm actually hitting the ball very clean,” he said. “But just the consistency has not been there, maybe not as sharp as I could be mentally. Concentration's not been so good. That's something that, again, especially on this surface, needs to be better because, you know, on grass you can get away with hitting a couple of big serves and the point's over, whereas here you have to work hard for every point, and you need to concentrate better.”

Murray admits that Davis Cup can be a drain, but says he managed to overcome it all last season. He’ll plan to do that again this season starting with a third-round encounter with France’s Benoit Paire at Monte-Carlo.

“Last year, after the Davis Cup, I also had some tough losses, as well, like in Washington last year,” he said. “I managed to rebound well from that. You know, in all of the matches that I've lost as well, I've been in winning positions and not closed them out. The last few weeks also could have been a different story if just my concentration was a little bit better. I'll try to improve on that in the next one.”

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