Andy Murray is now 0-2 in his comeback to singles. That is not particularly surprising, nor alarming, nor any cause for concern.
It isn’t about wins and losses right now for Murray, who showed signs of progress and continued to be pain free during a 7-8(8), 7-5 loss to Tennys Sandgren in round one of the Winston-Salem Open on Monday night. The 32-year-old Scot dropped his Cincinnati opener last week via a 6-4, 6-4 decision against eventual semifinalist Richard Gasquet.
“Some things were a bit better today, I think,” Murray said following his two-hour and nine-minute match with Sandgren. “I was hitting the ball a bit cleaner than I did maybe in Cincinnati… I feel like I moved fairly well to some drop shots, which maybe last week I wasn’t running to. So there’s some good things in there but also some stuff I would like to do better,” Murray said. “Physically, [I feel] OK considering, no pain, no discomfort. Just a little bit more tired than usual.
“I’m quite aware of sort of where I’m at just now and what my level is. It’s competitive at this level but it needs to be better. Maybe I need play a level down to get some matches and build my game up a little bit before I start playing on the tour again.”
The former world No. 1 will not play the U.S. Open–not even in men’s doubles or mixed–and could instead participate in a Challenger singles event. Sandgren, meanwhile, advances to a second-round meeting with Winston-Salem No. 2 seed Denis Shapovalov.
“It was a great atmosphere,” the American noted. “Everyone was super excited. Obviously, Andy…his career speaks for itself, so to have him here and playing and to be able to compete against him tonight was a pleasure. The match itself was really close. The first set could have gone either way and to come out with it was a big relief. It was a tight two-set match, long and physical and I’m happy to come through.”
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marathon, not a sprint