World No 1 continuing return from elbow injury after reaching Barcelona semi-finals
Thursday 11 May 2017 19:04, UK
Annabel Croft and Miles Maclagan both feel confidence is coming back into Andy Murray's game after the world No 1 starts to rediscover his game following an elbow injury.
The World No 1, who had shingles after the Australian Open and had the flu for a few days following his exit, is continuing his return from an elbow injury which forced him to miss the Miami Open and Great Britain's Davis Cup quarter-final defeat against France.
But Murray, who will turn 30 next week, has been making good progress and will be hoping to go deep at the Madrid Masters having reached the semi-finals in Barcelona.
With the Briton also set to play in Rome before the French Open, Croft and Maclagan say that this is a period of adjustment for Murray as he attempts to regain his court confidence.
"I always have faith in him because he's such a great competitor and such a warrior out there on the court," Croft told Sky Sports. "He just gets the bit between his teeth and you know he's going to knuckle down and make life as hard as he can for all opponents.
"I also think he said at the start of the clay-court season when he was coming back from the time off for the elbow injury that he didn't want to get too down on himself too quickly. He wanted to be realistic about things, which is always a difficult thing to do.
He has become such a force on clay so I think it's been very difficult for Andy to adjust with everything going on and injury problems are a bit of a nightmare because they put a spanner in the works.
"Confidence is everything. You have to pick yourself up from where you left off and if you lost the last match, that's not easy. I think that was a great attitude to have going into the clay-court season because for the last few seasons he's made so much progress on the clay and he's learned so much.
"He has become such a force on clay so I think it's been very difficult for Andy to adjust with everything going on and injury problems are a bit of a nightmare because they put a spanner in the works."
McClagan dismissed the idea that Murray has lost his desire which got him to the top of the world rankings.
"The elbow is a simple factor but it takes a little bit of time to get confidence. If someone has a knee replacement it takes a little bit of time to go through the motions and gain confidence. You can apply it to any other sport, like football for example," said Murray's former coach McClagan.
Most players have to reset their goals so it takes a little bit of time for their burning passion for those goals to build up, but I definitely think he's on an upward slope.
"I do think this is a period of adjustment after achieving amazing stuff which he did towards the end of last year and the effort it would have taken.
"It's very rare these top guys experience things for the first time, but for Andy, it was a first to push himself so hard and to become number one. He didn't have much of a break going into Australia with such high hopes and I think he maybe had to gather his passions and desires and reset his sights because he's done more than he really expected to do in the game with Grand Slams and number one.
"Most players when they've done that have to reset their goals, so it takes a little bit of time for their burning passion for those goals to build up, but I definitely think he's on an upward slope."
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