Andy Murray to skip Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship in 2013 – Tennis News
World number three, Andy Murray of Great Britain, has announced that he will not play Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships in the next season in order to focus on the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells.
This is the only tour level event which is held in Dubai and attracts most of the top players every year. This year Rafael Nadal was the only absentee among the top four and he also stayed away only due to his knee problems.
However, Murray has decided to skip Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships to avoid fatigue. The British number had a very good start to the season, as he won Brisbane International at the beginning. Then, he lost a close battle
against the eventual champion, Novak Djokovic, in the final of the Australian Open.
After that, Murray gave an impressive showing in Dubai, as he stunned the then world number one, Djokovic, in straight sets in the semi-finals, only losing to Roger Federer in the title match.
Though, things went bad for Murray later on, as he lost to low ranked player, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in his opening match at the BNP Paribas Open. This was not the first time that Murray had went down cheaply in Indian Wells, as
he was stunned by the then world number 143, Donald Young of USA, in straight sets 6-7(4), 3-6 in his first match last year.
Murray said in a recent interview, “The last few years I hadn’t played particularly well in Indian Wells. After Australia this year I went over to train in Miami afterwards, which I felt worked well. I flew back to Dubai, then
back over for Indian Wells.”
He added, “You know, that beginning part of the year, I was a bit tired for certain tournaments. So I decided after the Australian Open, I’ll go home for a little while and then go over to Miami and train and stay over in America
for a while, get used to the conditions, try and reduce the travel at the beginning of the year.”
Murray bounced back to reach the final at the Sony Ericsson Open but then he had a poor clay court season. Nevertheless, the British pride did an amazing job during the summers, as he reached the final of Wimbledon for the first
time, grabbed Gold Medal at the Olympic Games and captured his maiden Grand Slam title at the US Open.
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