Andy Murray makes plans for 2024 to dismiss retirement concerns
Andy Murray has appeared to dismiss any concerns that he is considering his future in tennis by confirming he will play Brisbane.
The former world number one has had a difficult year, culminating in his losing at the Paris Masters to Alex de Minaur despite leading 5-2 in the deciding set.
That prompted some stark admissions from Murray, most notably that he was no longer ‘enjoying tennis.’
However, he is already making plans and commitments for 2024, so clearly he is no planning on packing in just yet.
Naomi Osaka has also confirmed she will make her return to tennis in Brisbane, and Victoria Azarenka is signed up as well.
On the men’s side, the revitalised Grigor Dimitrov and rising star Holger Rune will be in the draw.
“We are really excited to welcome Naomi Osaka, Andy Murray, Victoria Azarenka, Holger Rune and Grigor Dimitrov to Brisbane in 2024 and know the atmosphere of watching these top players will be thrilling this summer,” tournament director Cam Pearson said.
“Victoria, Andy and Grigor are all past Brisbane International champions, so to have them confirmed this early shows their commitment to the tournament and how much players love coming back to Queensland.
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“We are also thrilled to have one of the world’s best young players, Holger Rune, confirmed for the Brisbane International. The 20-year-old has had an incredible year, reaching world No.4 in August and next week has his eyes set on winning the 2023 ATP Finals, under new coach Boris Becker.”
What did Andy Murray say about his future after Paris
The Paris Open was clearly a difficult moment for Murray. He looked like he was cruising to victory and twice served for the match against de Minaur, and his failure to convert obviously hurt him.
He was typically open with the press afterwards and admitted that he needed to make big changes if he wanted to continue, and clearly he has decided to commit.
“I don’t feel like I played particularly well today and I’m still in a three-set match with a guy ranked 13 in the world,” Murray said. “It’s frustrating. I’m not really enjoying it just now I would say just in terms of how I feel on the court and how I’m playing.”
The 36-year-old continued, “The last five, six months haven’t been that enjoyable, which doesn’t help things, so I need to try and find some of that enjoyment back because playing a match like that there’s not really much positivity there.
“When I play a good point, I’m not really getting behind myself and then in the important moments, that will to win and fight that has always been quite a big, big part of my game. Like I said, what happened today, I don’t remember it happening before, but it’s very, very rare. Those sorts of situations happen quite a lot this year, and that’s not really me. It’s not enjoyable.”
“Sometimes you play really well in practice and it doesn’t necessarily translate onto the match court, but you at least feel like you’re getting somewhere,” he said. “Whereas for the most part in practice it’s not been great. A lot of frustration there in training, and that’s kind of carrying over into the matches.
“If I want to keep going, I’m going to need a lot of work. It’s not just going to be like one or two weeks of training to get me to where I need to get to, it’s going to have to be a lot of work and consistent work to give myself a chance.”
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