Tennis siblings Liam and Naomi Broady explain why Andy Murray has decided to change his racket after 20 years; you can watch the conclusion to the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome exclusively live on Sky Sports Tennis
Thursday 16 May 2024 15:24, UK
Andy Murray has changed his racket after 20 years, but why? With the two-time former Wimbledon champion coming towards the end of his career, tennis siblings Liam and Naomi Broady get to the bottom of his decision.
Murray, who changed his racket string pattern during the off-season to allow for more depth when striking the ball, has now opted to change rackets just months ahead of his rumoured retirement.
Until now he has been an established user of Head gear throughout his career, but his team confirmed the Scot has changed brands and is using Yonex for the Challenger tournament in Bordeaux this week.
Murray, who celebrated his 37th birthday on Wednesday, competed for the first time since rupturing ligaments in his left ankle during a second-round defeat to Tomas Machac at March's Miami Open.
But a promising recovery has encouraged the former two-time Wimbledon champion to accept wild cards into Bordeaux and next week's Geneva Open ahead of what is expected to be his swansong at the French Open from May 26.
He made a winning start in France on Wednesday after his opponent retired in the second set.
The Scot was leading world No 219 Kyrian Jacquet 7-5 2-0 when the Frenchman was forced to pull out.
"I've just associated Andy with a Head racket for 20 years. He's at that stage in his career where he wants to get every last little advantage he can and I guess he's never really looked at [changing] rackets," good friend Liam Broady said on Sky Sports Tennis.
"It's a huge decision. It's a completely different racket to the one he normally uses. I'd say the one he normally uses is probably a bit of a deader racket whereas that Yonek one is quite a powerful one. I think it's a similar one to the one Casper Ruud uses. I mean if you're going to go for a big racket change, that's pretty much as big as you can get.
"He apparently tried every single racket under the sun. He tried [Carlos] Alcaraz's racket. He threw it into the fence and said 'no Carlos, not this racket' so he's going to try every racket and see which one suits best and I'm interested to see how it goes.
"Will it add an extra couple of per cent to his game? I'm all for it."
Liam's sister Naomi admits changing racket at such a late stage in his career is "unprecedented" and says all tennis players are very particular when it comes to the equipment they use.
She said: "You know how obsessed he gets with every aspect and every inch of his tennis. He sometimes looks at things and we're thinking 'you're Andy Murray, you don't need to look in that direction' but he does, doesn't he?
"Changing racket at this stage in his career is unprecedented, isn't it? Players normally get set with their racket and you know how particular we all are. We're going up and down in our racket tension by half a gram and you feel it's been professionally weighted and balanced and the players note 'no, this one is off. I can feel half a gram extra in the head than the grip'. They can feel everything, so to have a complete change of racket, I can't remember it happening."
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