Andy Murray has a different Australian Open preparation this time

Andy Murray is doing everything he can to get that elusive Australian Open crown. He has been a runner up 5 times now, and would want to do everything he can to go that one step further at Melbourne Park (16-29^th Jan)

For the last 2 years, the Hopman Cup has been Murray’s preparation before the Australian juggernaut. But this time Murray has opted for the Mubadla World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi!

Murray should be in very high spirits after pulling off a rabbit out of the hat to topple Novak Djokovic from the helm of the ATP rankings. It has to be one of the most unexpected comebacks in sporting history and an achievement that ranks with the best.

Murray feels that things could change for him at the Australian Open this year!

“I’ve played really well there in the past and it hasn’t happened for me so I’ll need to do something a little bit different this year”

“I love the conditions there and I enjoy the tournament a lot, and I’ll be going in hopefully playing well and with a lot of confidence because of the way I finished 2016, so I’ll give it a good go this year.”

It took Murray an entire year of superhuman tennis to leap frog Djokovic and he feels that it has taken a toll on him, physically and mentally!

“Getting to number one it took me basically the whole year, right down to the last tournament, the last match of the year to finish number one, so that was really, really hard and it took a lot out of me physically and mentally,”

“I was really, really tired, more tired than I’ve been at the end of any season that I’d finished before.”

Murray will be facing the winner of Jo Wilfried Songa and David Goffin in Friday’s semifinal!

Only time will tell if this change in preparation pans out well for the Murray camp but he most certainly is the favourite to go on and clinch the title at Melbourne Park this time round.

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Utkarsh Bhatla