Andy Murray suffered another disappointing defeat earlier this week – this time in the first round of the Shanghai Masters. The Brit now finds himself on a three-match losing streak and could be under some pressure come next year when he has even more ranking points to defend if he continues to struggle for wins. Murray has already claimed that he could end his career if his ranking starts falling and could find himself in a tough spot if his standing does take a dip.
Murray has so far had a disappointing back end to the season after starting the year on a positive note. The former world No 1 won two five-set epics in at the Australian Open in January, including a five-hour and 45-minute comeback victory over Thanasi Kokkinakis that ended at 4:05am.
He backed it up by reaching the final in Doha and went on to win three Challenger titles – Aix-en-Provence, Surbiton and Nottingham. But Murray crashed out in the second round of both Wimbledon and the US Open, and is now on a three-match losing streak following opening-round exits in Shanghai and Beijing, and a second-round run in Zhuhai.
The three-time Major winner will need to find some form by the time the 2024 season begins, as he has already proposed the idea of retiring if he starts to lose matches and fall down the rankings. “I’ve obviously been progressing this year from a ranking perspective,” Murray said after a one-sided defeat to Grigor Dimitrov at the US Open.
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“You know, I had some great matches in Australia. Well, quite a few amazing matches at the beginning of the year really, in Doha, as well. I think was close to – you never know what’s gonna happen – but I think I was close to having a good run at Wimbledon.
“I still enjoy everything that goes into playing at a high level. I enjoy the work. You know, the training and trying to improve and trying to get better, I do still enjoy that.”
But if he stopped improving, Murray wasn’t sure whether he’d want to keep at it. He continued: “Yeah, and that’s what keeps me going. If things change and I stop enjoying that or my results, my ranking and everything, like, if I start to go backwards in that respect, you know, in a few months’ time I was ranked 60 in the world or whatever instead of moving up the way, things might change.”
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The current world No 39 still has an opportunity to end the year strong as he has three tournaments left – the ATP 500s in Tokyo and Basel, and the Masters 1000 in Paris-Bercy. Murray also only has 100 points to defend before the end of the season, meaning that he could still progress up the rankings with a couple of wins at each event.
The pressure to defend his ranking will only increase next season, as he defends 90 points straight off the bat at the Australian Open for making the third round in 2023. 150 points from Murray’s Doha final appearance will also come off at the end of February if he can’t match or better the result.
If he does go on to fall to around No 60, the Brit may have shot himself in the foot with his post-US Open claims as retirement questions would be at an all-time high with Murray potentially meeting his own requirements to stop playing.
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