The retired Murray says the pressure of expectation was the hardest thing about his career
In tabloid parlance, Andy Murray has “broken his silence” since retiring from tennis.
Usually, that silence has lasted a whole two or three days but in this case – the odd social media contribution aside – it is not unreasonable to say that Murray has been silent for the last month since hanging up his racket.
His posts on X have betrayed that he had still been watching the tennis, and the progress of his protege Jack Draper through the US Open, and the current British No 1 could do worse than to listen carefully to the advice of the man who used to hold that title (among others).
“Tennis is a very lonely sport at times, and the more and more successful you get, the higher those expectations are in terms of how you’re going to perform,” Murray told the BBC’s Today programme on Monday.
“It was really hard for me at times: reaching the final of Wimbledon and being criticised for your work, or feeling like you’re not good enough.
“I was one of the best tennis players in the world and had been extremely successful, but at that moment, I felt like I was failing at something, which I think is wrong.”
At the beginning of his journey, Draper lacks much of the scar tissue that Murray developed in his early career, when he lost six grand slam semi-finals and four finals before “finally” winning one at the US Open in 2012.
