An already strong 2021 Delray Beach Open field added its biggest name when Andy Murray accepted a wild card on Friday.
Murray, who is still trying to get back to full fitness on the heels of hip surgery, will be making his Delray Beach debut. The 33-year-old Scot is clearly encouraged by his recent performance at the latest Battle of the Brits exhibition. Earlier this week he defeated British No. 1 Dan Evans 7-6(5), 6-4 before beating Cam Norrie by a similar 6-4, 7-6(5) scoreline.
The ATP 250 in Delray Beach normally occupies a February spot on the calendar in between the Australian Open and the Masters 1000 stretch in Indian Wells and Miami, but due to the coronavirus pandemic the early-season schedule in 2021 looks much different and Delray Beach is among the changes. It will kick off the year along with a one-year licensed event in Antalya, both set for a Jan. 5 start. In addition to Murray, the field in South Florida also features John Isner, Milos Raonic, Kei Nishikori, Reilly Opelka, Sam Querrey, Frances Tiafoe, and Hubert Hurkacz.
Opelka and Murray, who won’t have first-round byes, are already on the schedule for Jan. 7 and Jan. 8 night sessions. Isner and Raonic, who will get byes as top-four seeds, are slated for the nights of Jan. 9 and Jan. 10.
Murray’s 2019 and 2020 campaigns were extremely abbreviated, because of both injury and this past year’s coronavirus hiatus. He scored an encouraging upset of Alexander Zverev at the Cincinnati Masters this summer and then came back from two sets down against Yoshihito Nishioka in round one of the U.S. Open, but he won only one other match in 2020 and played in just four tournaments.
Great news. Roll on the new season!
Federer withdraws
or should I say, Federer concedes. There is 6 other players that either finished the year strongly or are expected to do well at the AO. That means the likely best result for Fed coming back from an injury was a quarter finals result.
Its a big ask coming back from a 12 month lay-off and straight into a best of 5 sets major in arguably the toughest climate/conditions or all the majors so Fed’s team probably weighed it up with the expected result and decided its best to wait. Play a few best of 3 masters events, build some form first, wait for the vaccine, give his body some additional time and be in the best position or Wimbledon where he has his best chance over 5 sets.
Smart decision IMO. The older you get the less often you can sustain your peak form so he has to be very selective if he wants to continue to play at a high level.
Also the older you get the harder it is to come back from injury. Time stops for no man, not even Roger Federer, although he’s certainly slowed it some. 🙂 I wish him well and will miss seeing him in AO.
Delray has it’s best field ever…..should be great tv viewing!
Andy not participating now. Too much travelling = greater risk