Andy Murray Raises Safety Concerns in the Revised Tennis Calendar

Andy Murray has been quite excited about the return of tennis. Former World No.1 is playing in the Battle of Brits tournament in London. He has recovered from his hip injury and is trying to get some valuable match practice.

Murray just lost out to Dan Evans in the Semi-Final of the Battle of Brits in a closely fought three-set match. Now he is keen to get back into grand slam tennis. And so he wants to do his best in the upcoming US Open. But like Rafael Nadal, even he is having trouble understanding the new calendar.

“A lot of top players may not compete at the biggest events” – Andy Murray

The new calendar for the resuming tennis season is cramped up. With 3 masters tournaments and 2 Grand Slams packed up together between mid-August and late September. There is lesser time to practice and the situation is tough all around the world. Many players will have trouble playing all the tournaments without risking injury.

“It’s not safe for players to go from the semi-finals or final in New York and then play in Madrid at altitude on clay when they haven’t competed for a long time,” said Murray.

“You’re going to have the potential where a lot of top players are not competing at many of the biggest events,” he added.

Murray is right, the big players might skip out on the big tournaments. Nadal also is thinking of skipping the US Open so that he will be fit and safe for the clay season. This is certainly very serious as Nadal is the defending champion at the Flushing Meadows.

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So seeing the situation, Murray gave a hint about his plans. He might skip the Cincinnati Masters where he is a two-time champion. Murray will instead play the Washington Open to prepare and rest well for the US Open. Many players could follow the Brit with the same plan.

“I would rather play Washington and miss the event the week before at the U.S. Open if they all go ahead,” he said.

The season resumes with the US leg and right now the situation there is bad. Every day the coronavirus cases increase with record numbers. So the US Open, in particular, could be a red flag for players and they could concentrate more on the clay-court tournaments.