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Watching Lionel Messi lift the World Cup has been the perfect inspiration for Andy Murray as he prepares for his eighteenth year on tennis’s premier tour.
Murray was glued to the drama in Qatar and full of admiration for the Argentine, from whom he is six weeks apart.
Being 35 presents even more challenges for Murray as he plays with a metal hip, but he was delighted with a fellow athlete he first saw while training as a teenager in Barcelona.
Watching Lionel Messi’s World Cup triumph has inspired Andy Murray to play “the best he can”
“He’s amazing and I was really happy for him that he was finally able to win the World Cup when it was thought that he hadn’t at international level, which was strange,” said Murray, who appears in the Scotland v England Battle event. of the British in Aberdeen on Wednesday night.
‘The age he is also, I think he was born the same year as me. Seeing any athlete in their 30s and 30s go out there and compete in what they love is great.
“I’ve had the chance to witness that quite a bit in tennis, whether it’s Serena or Federer and Nadal and these guys in our own sport. I find that it gives me motivation to keep going and keep trying to go out there and perform to the best of my ability.’
Messi, 35, won the World Cup this Sunday with Argentina after beating France 4-2 on penalties
Murray just returned from three weeks of training in Florida with his mentor Ivan Lendl, and he’s still striving to accomplish what he can in the time he has left.
Before heading to Australia, he leads the Scotland team in the two-day challenge against England before a sellout crowd in the Far North.
It is the brainchild of his brother Jamie, who first came up with the Battle of the Brits concept to provide competition for domestic players during the 2020 lockdown period.
While there may be a slight element of pre-Christmas pantomime with football personalities Ally McCoist and Ian Holloway in the chair as captains on the pitch, the actual competition is likely to be perfectly serious.
The tennis star, who is also 35, first saw Messi play as a teenager at Barcelona.
Adding to the background for the next 48 hours will be the views expressed recently by England’s Dan Evans on selection matters for GB in the Davis Cup group stage in September.
The 32-year-old Midlander has made no secret of his opinion that Murray and Joe Salisbury were the wrong combination in the two decisive doubles, which saw losses that knocked GB out of the competition.
While Murray was reasonably phlegmatic on Tuesday about the public spat, his England teammate Salisbury seemed less smitten with Evans for going public.
“We disagreed on certain things, and I disagreed with the way he did it and some of his opinions as well, but that’s okay,” said the normally mild-mannered US Open doubles champion.
Murray said: “To see any athlete in their 30s and 30s competing in what they love is brilliant.”
‘Obviously, that’s not the way most of us do things or think it’s the best way to do things. I know most of the guys on the team weren’t very happy with the comments he made and how public he was about them, but I don’t have a problem with him thinking he should play.
‘That’s part of the reason it’s so good. I don’t think it’s been good for the team overall, but we can disagree and move on with things.”
Evans will have Jack Draper and Paul Jubb backing him in singles, while the English will have a high-caliber doubles pairing in respective world numbers one and four, Neal Skupski and Joe Salisbury.
In the absence of Cam Norrie, who has been playing in the Middle East ahead of Australia, world number 27 Evans is the highest-ranked singles player present.
The Scotsman prepares to turn 18 on tennis’ main tour despite playing with a metal hip
He reiterated the opinion that his opinions should not offend: ‘In tennis we take everything so personally, have you never been told something bad about yourself? He was just saying that he didn’t think anyone would do his job very well,” Evans said.
He believes this week’s team format will remove some of the inhibitions he might otherwise have when facing the aging Statesman Murray on the regular circuit.
“It would be quite difficult for me to play Andy on tour and face him a bit,” Evans said. But since there are no points and there is a crowd, it would be quite fun to beat him here.
“I think with Aidan (McHugh, second Scottish singles player) obviously it would be nice to give him a little bit of hiding. It will be an amazing atmosphere as it always is in Scotland and it will be very interesting to be on the other side.”
Murray is preparing to lead Scotland in the challenge of the Battle of the British against England
Rarely afraid to speak his mind, Evans was also prepared to deliver his verdict on next month’s Netflix tennis version of Drive To Survive.
It is highly anticipated by many, although less so by the British number two, who thinks he will suffer because not all the players have participated: ‘You could have chosen who they were going to choose. Predictable, somewhat predictable.
‘You want to hear what Rafa (Nadal) has to say when he had to withdraw from Wimbledon. But we will have to listen to (Stefanos) Tsitsipas and his dad. There was always going to be a tennis dad there, wasn’t there? Usually everything is represented, you can see it, come on.
Dan Evans insisted Murray and Joe Salisbury were the wrong Davis Cup combination