Andy Murray revealed he felt nervous against Radu Albot even though he seemed to be in control of the match and in the end sealed his first straight-set win of the year.
On Saturday, Murray was scheduled to play 17th-ranked Pablo Carreno Busta in the Indian Wells first round.
But since Carreno Busta was seeded and withdrew from the tournament, the Spaniard was replaced by world No 109 Albot.
Murray sealed a 6-4 6-3 win over Albot and afterward admitted that knowing it was a pretty favorable matchup probably caused some nerves.
“I didn’t know if it was because of [the change of opponent]. I was trying to give reasons for why I may have felt that way. I felt nervous on the court. But maybe I felt like it was a good opportunity for me and that the draw had opened up slightly. I obviously wanted to try to finish the match quickly,” Murray said, per Yahoo! Sports.
Murray: I prefer feeling tension and pressure than feeling flat
“I generally much prefer feeling nervous when I play matches and feeling pressure. It just felt a bit out of sync with the situation. I was in, I guess, pretty decent control of the match. I was serving well, I was hitting the ball pretty well, but there was just more tension than probably there should have been out there on the court. But usually I prefer to feel nerves, providing they are in check. And maybe they weren’t, for whatever reason. I would way rather feel more tension than feel flat, which is really never a good sign for me. If I wake up and I don’t feel any of the butterflies or anything like that, it’s generally a bad sign,” Murray explained.
The 2022 season was tough for Murray and he was regularly losing tight matches and feeling frustrated afterward.
But at the start of the 2023 season, Murray’s luck has changed for the better and he is now mostly winning tight contests.
In 2023, one of Murray’s biggest goals is to make some notable Grand Slam and Masters runs.
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