Andy Murray would 'fancy' himself against 'a lot' of top 10 on grass after Surbiton win ahead of Wimbledon
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Updated 06/06/2023 at 07:46 GMT
Former world No. 1 Andy Murray is preparing for Wimbledon by playing at the Surbiton Trophy Challenger event this week. Murray, 36, believes he is still one of the best players around on grass and has spoken about his ambitions for the month ahead and his hopes to be seeded for Wimbledon, where he is a two-time champion. Murray also said he wants to see "how hard I can push my body".
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Andy Murray says he would “fancy” his chances against a lot of the world’s top 10 on grass.
The former world No. 1 opted out of the French Open and is instead preparing for Wimbledon by playing at the grass-court Surbiton Trophy Challenger event.
Murray made a strong start at the tournament as he beat Chung Hyeon 6-3 6-2 in the opening round.
He showed last year he is still a force on his favourite surface as he beat Nick Kyrgios and Stefanos Tsitsipas to make the Stuttgart final, where he narrowly lost to Matteo Berrettini.
Asked if he still considered himself among the best 10 players on grass, Murray, 36, said: “Yes, I think so. It is hard to put numbers on it, but yes, I would fancy myself against a lot of them [the top 10].
"Last year I won against Kyrgios who made the final of Wimbledon, I won against 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 Berrettini - who is quite clearly in the top few grass-court players - in the final of Stuttgart before I hurt my abs."
Murray, who has added doubles specialist Jonny O’Mara to his coaching team, will be looking for a strong week in Surbiton as he continues his push to be seeded for Wimbledon.
He is currently ranked at No. 43 in the world, with the top 32 earning a seeded spot at Grand Slams.
"I've got up to 41 in the world and believe I can go higher than that,” he added.
“Obviously I did well here [Surbiton] and in Stuttgart last year and I think I need about 300 points [to be seeded at Wimbledon] so I will have to do well the next few weeks if I want to do that.
"If I have a good tournament at Queen's, if you make the final or win the tournament there then I would be seeded, but I need to just concentrate on the performances.
"If you start just thinking about points it is not necessarily the best way to look at things. I will just try and win as many matches as possible and see if I can get in there."
Murray will play a qualifier in the second round in Surbiton, either Harry Wendelken or Bu Yunchaokete.
He says he still wants to push himself and see how far he can go following his hip resurfacing operation in 2019.
"I still want to win, I want to compete and see how hard I can push my body," said Murray.
"The operations I had, I was told I might be able to play again so I just want to see how far I can go."
Murray’s fellow Brit Dan Evans is the top seed at the Surbiton event.
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