Dubai: World No.1 and newly crowned Dubai champion Andy Murray is not looking to bring too many changes to his game as he starts his quest on the American swing, starting with Indian Wells and Miami later this month.
Murray became the first British champion at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships following his dominating 6-3, 6-2 win over Spain’s Fernando Verdasco at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium late on Saturday.
It was his best win over the Spaniard since Miami almost exactly eight years ago and comes after he finished runner-up to Roger Federer in Dubai in 2012. Incredibly, it was also Murray’s seventh final in his last eight tournaments and 14th in his last 16 where he has won 37 of his last 39 matches. His two losses so far have come at the Qatar Open final (against Novak Djokovic) and in the fourth round of the Australian Open (against Zverev).
In contrast, Murray was not off to his best starts in 2016. Reaching one final and winning the other is just the ideal platform Murray now sees to launch the remainder of his season starting with next week’s BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells (from March 9 to 19) followed by Miami (March 20 to April 2).
Murray left Dubai for Los Angeles in the early hours of Sunday. “I hope this tournament gives me the momentum for the season. The thing is conditions again are totally different. In Indian Wells, it’s very slow courts with fast balls and the other way around here, fast court with quite slow balls. Obviously I have to get there and adjust to that. And because winning this week is fantastic, obviously winning matches builds confidence,” he said.
“Obviously this was a good start to this stretch, and like I said, trying to obviously get to Indian Wells much earlier than I did last year. And even though it’s a long trip, it gives me five or six days to get ready before my first match,” he added.
Murray has been consistent while reaching a final in seven of his last eight tournaments and 14 of his last 16 dating back to the Madrid Masters last year. After ending 2016 with the world number one spot, one of two glitches unfortunately came at a Grand Slam where he lost to Mischa Zverev in their fourth round encounter in January.
“It’s obviously been good. I was saying it’s unfortunate that one of the ones where I didn’t do it happened to be obviously a Slam. But, it’s been a good run. Obviously want to try and peak and play your best tennis at the slams, but, giving yourself a lot of matches gives you confidence to go into those big events,” Murray noted.
“After the break that I have had to get five matches in, six if you include the doubles, in six days is a really positive thing physically. I feel good. I was a bit tired yesterday after the match with [Philipp] Kohlschreiber. But, I felt a lot better today. It’s been a great run and I can’t complain too much,” he added.
