‘Don’t want to take that risk’ – Andy Murray set to skip French Open to focus on Wimbledon
Whilst Andy Murray has said he feels “good and healthy,” he has opted to miss the French Open as he reveals “clay has made issues worse” in the past.
At the recently finished Australian Open, three-time Grand Slam champion Andy Murray beat World number 21 Nikoloz Basilashvili in a five set thriller that lasted a gruelling 3 hours and 52 minutes.
Wildcard Murray then went on to lose to Japanese qualifier Taro Daniel in the second round as he suffered a disappointing early exit.
As a result, the British icon deemed his trial with coach Jan de Witt unsuccessful and looks set to re-appoint Stan Wawrinka’s coach Dani Valverdu to his team on another trial basis.
The duo previously worked together between 2010 and 2014, a period where Murray won two of his three Grand Slam titles and reached a further three Slam finals.
Murray has also accepted a wildcard to play at the first ATP 500 event of the season, the Rotterdam Open in the Netherlands.
Despite the early exit from the first Slam of the season, Murray has broken back into the ATP top 100 in the new rankings update as he has risen a total of seven places from 102nd to 95th.
Overall, the former World number one enjoyed an excellent Australian Summer as he reached the final of the Sydney International, his first final since 2019, and put in an impressive display at the ‘Happy Slam.’
As such, former British number one Tim Henman has backed Murray for Wimbledon success as feels he is “moving in the right direction.”
Speaking to reporters ahead of his opening match against Alexander Bublik, Murray said “the past couple of years, the clay has made issues worse.
“Last year I had some issues at the beginning of the year, the clay didn’t help, so I’ve spoken to my team about that and this year while I feel good and healthy, I don’t want to take that risk.
“It’s not that I wouldn’t potentially play on clay in the future, last year I almost missed Wimbledon, was close to not playing the grass season, I’m not planning on playing the clay, I will still try to compete a bit during that period.”
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