Andy Murray tipped to impress ahead of US Open

Crunch Sports Staff
in Tennis 2 Aug 2021Share

Andy Murray (credit: JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP/Getty Images)

Andy Murray’s former coach believes the British number one is in such good form he could win one or both upcoming Masters tournaments.

Murray reached the semi-final at Wimbledon, only losing to an inspired Roger Federer, and Mark Petchey feels he is in prime form for the American hard court season, culminating in the US Open.

Before the final Grand Slam of the year, there are two Masters events, in Montreal and Cincinnati and Petchey feels he is in the kind of form to do well at both.

“I think he’s playing the sort of tennis where he has the belief in himself that you’ll see him challenge for one of them, if not both of them, that is how well he is playing right now,” he said.

“From all aspects, if he has a great week in Washington and it is one of those ridiculously hot weeks, it could be difficult to go and perform well in Canada, but then obviously he gets a good week in Cincinnati, and he’s going to be riding high into the US Open.”

Murray has played since Wimbledon; leading Great Britain to the semi-finals of the Davis Cup after beating France in the last eight.

He begins his hard court preparations at the Washington Open next week, an event in which he reached the final in 2006 only to lose to Arnaud Clement.

The Scot is top seed at the event with two other players in the ATP world top 10 also scheduled to appear; Kei Nishikori and Marin Cilic.

Murray returns to the ATP tour without coach Amelie Mauresmo, who is on maternity leave.

Jonas Bjorkman, who has been in the British player’s team for most of the year, will take over in the meantime