• Davis Cup

Murray left frustrated by 'messed up' schedule

ESPN staff
September 19, 2011
Andy Murray has played 13 ATP tournaments in 2011 © Getty Images
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The Davis Cup future of Andy Murray may hinge on a meeting involving some the world's best players in China next month.

Murray has hit out at the gruelling schedule that he, and other top players, have been forced to endure in recent years. The players hope to take a revised schedule plan, which would address the growing concern over unsustainable ranking points, to the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) in order to create a more reasonable agenda for the sport's elite.

The Scot admitted he was fatigued after he defeated Hungary's Gyorgy Balazs 7-6 6-3 on Sunday to help Great Britain gain promotion back into the Europe/Africa Zone Group One of the Davis Cup, and is hoping for some major changes to occur before committing to appear in the 2012 competition.

"The mandatory events is the worst thing," Murray explained. "All you had to do originally was play in nine Masters Series and four slams, that was 13 events.

"I'm being quite open about it, some of the smaller events, because the ATP's messed up the smaller tournaments by giving them 250 points, it doesn't really make much sense to play in, because 250 points isn't going to make hardly any difference.

"But you get good guarantees for going so one or two times a year, it's nice to do that. When we play the Masters Series and the slams, we're playing against the best players in the world every time.

"Sometimes it's nice to go to a tournament when you don't have to kill yourself in every single match. You can gain some confidence from winning matches and maybe winning a tournament. The schedule's messed up and we need to change it."

This leaves the 24-year-old's Davis Cup future in question, to which Murray responded: "I'll need to have a look at my schedule and see exactly what's going on, which tournaments I'm going to play, and also what happens in Shanghai might be quite significant, what the players decide to do.

"If all the players get together and say what they want exactly then maybe things will get done a bit quicker and we can move a couple of things around."

Murray will take a brief break before heading to Asia to play in the Bangkok and Tokyo tournaments prior to the Shanghai Masters.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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