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The eve of Ajla Tomljanovic and Paula Badosa’s withdrawals from the tournament has sparked rumors that a Netflix curse could be afoot at the Australian Open.
The top Australian and the Spaniard are two of the players featured in the new Break Point series on tour, and both have been forced to pull out with injuries.
Andy Murray would desperately love to back up the curse theory by knocking out another of the documentary’s main participants, Matteo Berrettini, when they meet in the first round on Tuesday morning.
Andy Murray is preparing for the Australian Open after a productive offseason
The 35-year-old is excited about that prospect, except for the actual Netflix series that portrays the lives of various personalities on the circuit. It’s not really his style.
It’s not something I’m desperate to get back to the hotel room and keep going, but I don’t know if I’m the person it’s supposed to be for. I’m not sure if I’ll ever see it,” Murray mused.
“Sometimes, like last year, when I was at tournaments, I found a lot of people around the players. I don’t know how easy it is for people to be themselves. Personally, if you put 10 cameras around me, I don’t feel like I’m going to to be completely natural in that situation.
Infinitely more important for the two-time Wimbledon champion is proving that he is more than the showgirl he was in 2022, who finished 49th with a 26-19 season match record.
The year ended on a particularly sad note when, playing the worst match one can remember of him, he lost in the indoor Paris Masters to Frenchman Gilles Simon, who was on the verge of retiring.
The 35-year-old is looking to return to his best after a disappointing 2022
After that, some might have been tempted to join Simon in smelling the roses and spending more time with family. Murray instead responded by criticizing his own training regimen and then went to Florida to spend three weeks with his mentor, Ivan Lendl.
Unusually, Lendl, who is a reluctant traveller, was persuaded to arrive in Australia early to oversee his player’s preparations for Melbourne.
Their time together made Murray more optimistic that he can be more than someone who makes up numbers.
“It’s the first time in a long time that I’ve really had six or seven weeks of uninterrupted work for nothing, so I feel like I was able to make some improvements in the off-season and feel a little more comfortable with my game.” ‘ he said. “For me it’s great that Iván was obviously here early so that we can do a proper preparation together.”
Murray’s problem is that despite accepting a slew of wild cards, he hasn’t been able to build his ranking to where he’s seeded. Hence these early rounds against the huge serve-forehand combination of Wimbledon 2021 finalist Berrettini.
He will face Italian star Matteo Berretini in the first round of the Australian Open.
In truth, there hasn’t been much evidence that Murray can match the likes of Novak Djokovic and Lionel Messi in maintaining stratospheric standards until their mid-30s, but neither of them has the major handicap of performing with a metal hip.
Interestingly, Murray feels like this part of his anatomy is actually getting better over time, as his body gets more and more used to what’s inside of him. The downside is that he has to adapt his training preparation accordingly.
“I had to adjust a few things, but I think now that my body is used to having a metal hip, I don’t have as much aches and pains.
“Which is interesting, because if you talk about the aging process, when I was 33 I had a lot more problems with my body than I do now at 35 and a half, just because my body is used to the new hip.” If I see Rafa (Nadal) and Novak moving around the court, they don’t seem much slower to me based on their age, but obviously there are restrictions that I have due to the surgery.
Murray has spent the last few weeks working with his idol Ivan Lendl (pictured)
‘In a training week, I work for five days and take two days off. Whereas before it was five and a half days or six days. My days are a little shorter. I don’t do any running or impact work off the court, when in my early 20s and early 20s I did a lot of track work.
“I do some cycling and use the vertical climber a lot, but I no longer do squats with weights on my shoulders. I feel a lot better when I get on the court in terms of how I’m going to play and my understanding of what I need to do to be successful.
His match against Berrettini is a repeat of the US Open third round encounter when he lost to the Italian in four tight sets.
Murray is one of five British men directly in the main draw, with Kyle Edmund, Cam Norrie, Jack Draper and Dan Evans, the highest GB male representation since 1988.