5 things Andy Murray Can Aim For In 2017
Having now reached the pinnacle of the men’s singles and achieved perhaps the biggest goal a player could aspire to, Sir Andrew Barron Murray, 2016 year-end World No. 1, will now look to restructure his goals having started the 2017 season off in convincing fashion.
But having gained that title by no means translates into Murray taking it easy, and it is doubtful, given the Scot’s hard-working, aggressive nature, that he will take a prolonged period of rest.
Murray has already declared himself in the 2017 season; despite having lost out at the finals of the ATP Doha Championships, he put up a strong fight against longtime opponent Djokovic. Despite the Serb holding three championship points in the second set, a valiant fight back from Murray forced a third set.
The Scot more than put his fighting spirit on display, stretching for near-impossible shots that players better than him, even, may have ignored.
Here are 5 new goals Murray could set in the coming season:
Winning the Australian Open
Last year, the Scot won a second title at Wimbledon, his third Grand Slam overall. He has trophies at Wimbledon and the US Open – no mean feat in itself, but Swiss Stan Wawrinka, who shares Murray’s overall Grand Slam tally, has titles at the Australian Open, the French Open and, as of last year, the US Open.
Murray has made the finals of the Australian Open on five separate occasions, for the first time in 2010. Losing to Roger Federer in his first Australian Open final in a long-drawn out third-set tiebreak, he lost a further four times to arch-nemesis Novak Djokovic.
This year, and perhaps in most of the latter half of the 2016 season, Murray’s defense has been nothing short of exceptional. The Scot has been fending off near-impossible shots, a feat he repeated multiple times in his Qatar Open final against Novak Djokovic this week.
His forehands down the line have become more powerful, more well-placed, his defensive baseline work honed significantly. Given that he did not have much downtime, Murray’s fitness – a facet that has stood him in the utmost stead throughout his career so far, is a marvel. The Scot is perhaps one of the few players to not have struggled with any significant injury that has derailed his career, even for a short period.
Now, given his form and the number of barriers Murray has systematically broken the last year – even ending the year with a first-time ATP World Tour Finals title, there should be nothing in the way of Murray breaking yet another barrier.