Andy Murray to leave 'no stone unturned' in bid to reach the top as pivotal season awaits

Former world No 1 is in Abu Dhabi for the Mubadala World Tennis Championship this week and is working with new coach Jan De Witt on a trial basis

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  Andy Murray is part of the line-up for the Mubadala World Tennis Championship. Getty Images

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  Rafael Nadal is also competing. Reuters

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  Andrey Rublev. AFP

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  Denis Shapovalov. EPA

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  Dan Evans. Getty Images

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  Taylor Fritz. AFP

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  Belinda Bencic. AP Photo

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  Ons Jabeur. AP

Andy Murray has conceded that next season will be pivotal in deciding his future as a professional tennis player and said he will leave "no stone unturned" in his attempt to return to the top of the sport.

Murray, 34, reached the summit of men's tennis and won the third of his three Grand Slam titles in 2016, but spent the subsequent two years battling a hip injury that almost ended his career.

After undergoing hip resurfacing surgery at the start of 2019, the arduous journey to rediscover the form and fitness that made him the best player in the world has been fraught with setbacks, including the coronavirus-enforced shutdown of the tennis season last year and additional injuries.

There were encouraging signs for Murray towards the back end of last season, with two victories over top-10 opponents and he pushed then world No 3 Stefanos Tsitsipas to five sets at the US Open.

However, for a player with 46 ATP titles in his trophy cabinet and who has spent the majority of his career positioned, at least, in the top four of the rankings, 2021 was ultimately a frustrating campaign.

Still sat outside the top 100, Murray admitted that he wants to see significant improvements next season.

"The positives [from 2021] were that I played a lot of long matches and tournaments back-to-back. So in terms of the robustness of my body, that’s in a way better place than what it was in 2019 and 2020," Murray said at the media day for the Mubadala World Tennis Championship on Wednesday.

"My tennis was not amazing but at times I played well so I know that is still in there. It’s just the consistency was not where it needed to be. Mentally, at times I was not as good as I would like, so that’s something I want to improve upon.

"This season is an important year for me. I don’t know how many seasons I have left but if I had another season like I did this year, that’s not what I want and not the level I want to be playing at, so it’s up to me to perform on the court and see if I can still do it."

Andy Murray at the US Open, where he had third seed Stefanos Tsitsipas on the ropes. AFP

In preparing for such a decisive season, Murray revealed that he needs to strike a balance between adopting a make-or-break mentality away from the match court while trying not to apply any unnecessary additional pressure during matches.

"When I’m away from the match court, I want to see it that way [as make or break] because I will give more in practice, more in my recovery, eat better, sleep better, things like that," he said.

"The trick is when I’m on the court to just focus in the process of the match and do the right things and the results will take care of themselves.

"I want to make sure I don’t leave any stone unturned away from the court – doing my warmups and cool-downs properly and all of those things. Get it all spot on so I don’t look back at the end of the season, and think ‘well, if I had done this differently, maybe I would’ve avoided this loss or this injury’.”

Andy Murray has parted ways with his long-time coach Jamie Delgado. PA

A big part of those preparations have involved working with a new coach. Murray recently parted ways with Jamie Delgado, his coach since 2016, and the former world No 1 is now working with Jan De Witt on a trial basis. Delgado is now heading up the team of Denis Shapovalov, the Canadian world No 14 who is also competing at MWTC this week.

Considering the juncture at which Murray finds himself in his career, he is taking careful consideration over who will be his next full-time coach, hence why the pair are initially working together as a trial.

"I feel like this decision is quite an important one for me because I don’t know how much time I have left, so I want to make sure the person who is with me for the last period of my career is the right one," he said. "That’s why I’m going about it this way."