Andy Murray: I still feel like a world top 10 player

Andy Murray says he still feels like a “top 10 player in the world” on grass, adding he believes he remains capable of going on a good run at Wimbledon this summer.

Speaking after a routine 6-3, 6-2 win against South Korea’s Chung Hyeon in the opening round of the Lexus Surbiton Trophy, the 36-year-old said he felt he was moving and playing better than this time 12 months ago. Earlier this year, Murray said he felt he could still compete for Wimbledon titles.

“It is hard to put numbers on it like that but yes, I would fancy myself against a lot of them,” Murray replied when asked whether he still considered himself a top 10 player in the world on grass. “Last year I won against [Nick] Kyrgios who made the final of Wimbledon. I won against [Stefanos] Tsitsipas – it is probably not his favourite surface but he is one of the best players in the world.

“I was a set-all with [Matteo] Berrettini in the final of Stuttgart who is quite clearly in the top few grass-court players before I hurt my abs.

“And I’m playing better this year than I was last year. But it is kind of irrelevant if you say that. You have to perform and win the matches on the court and it is up to me to show that in the next four or five weeks.”

Barring one tumble here at the start of the second set, when Murray went flying over a hoarding, the two-time Wimbledon champion looked in good nick against Chung, a 27-year-old who reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open in 2018 but has no real grass-court pedigree.

Relieved Murray escapes injury from hoarding trip

Murray chuntered to himself throughout in trademark fashion, berating a couple of “Hollywood” forehand attempts which flew long. But ultimately he had far too much for his opponent, serving well and hitting clean winners off both flanks.

Most encouragingly of all, he appeared to be moving better than he has for years. He suggested afterwards that his decision to skip Roland Garros in favour of preparing for the grass-court season had paid off.

“The body was good,” he said. “I’ve been working a lot on my movement the last few weeks on the grass to try [to] get that sharp. It’s such an important part of my game. On the grass, I feel like it’s an advantage I have over the [other] players. So I really need to make the most of that work on it as much as I can. And I moved well today.”

Asked about the fall he laughed and said he had been surprised by the lack of rigidity in the hoarding more than anything. “Usually they’re quite hard and sort of stable, whereas it was slightly different here.”

Murray, who is currently ranked world no 43 but is still hoping to secure a spot as one of the top 32 seeds at Wimbledon, has a fair few ranking points to defend in Surbiton having reached the semi-finals here 12 months ago.

He also made the final in Stuttgart last year. But he could yet skip the tournament in Germany next week in favour of preparing for Queen’s, which he won before both of his Wimbledon victories in 2013 and 2016.

“I think I need about 300 points so I’ll have to do well the next few weeks,” he said. “But I just need to concentrate on my performances. If you start thinking about points, or ‘you need to get to the semis of this tournament or the quarters of this tournament’... it’s not necessarily the best way to look at things.”

‘There’s no point in having people tell me ‘you’re brilliant’

Murray, who revealed he was “sleeping in the spare bedroom” at home, in an effort to get more sleep with four young children in the house, also spoke about the latest addition to his coaching setup.

Jonny O’Mara, a 28 year-old British doubles specialist with no great coaching experience, was sitting in the stands at Surbiton with the rest of Murray’s entourage, including coach Mark Hilton.

Murray explained that he wanted “more consistency” in his setup, with Ivan Lendl a notoriously reluctant traveller and Hilton tied up periodically with his LTA commitments.

“I just wanted to always have like one person who will be with me for the majority of the time,” Murray said. “That was kind of how it was during most of my career. When I was working with Ivan, Jamie Delgado was doing the majority of the weeks. Same thing with Dani [Vallverdu]. And yeah, it feels like sort of having a younger guy, who plays well, and has a good understanding of the game, to work with, alongside [Lendl and Hilton], it is really what I felt like I wanted. We’ll see how it goes.”

Murray acknowledged that O’Mara had little coaching experience and was still extremely young, but said it was up to him to try to make him feel welcome and relaxed in the group, and also be open to his suggestions.

“There’s no point having people around me at this stage that are just going to tell me: ‘You’re brilliant.’ You’re right, it would be easy for me to be like ‘Oh, what do you know?’ But then, what’s the point in bringing him on board? He has a good understanding of the game, a good feel for the game. And yeah, I’ve been happy with the work we’ve done so far.”