‘I haven’t been outclassed,’ says Andy Murray as he analyses recent form

Andy Murray says he has not been outclassed on the ATP Tour this season, even when he has lost to top players.

Murray is trying to fight his way back up the ATP world rankings after seeing his career decimated by a hip injury.

Those fitness problems now seem to be behind him, although he has found it hard to put a run of wins together.

Indeed, the former world number one has only won two consecutive matches once all season, but he believes there is a very obvious explanation for that.

“The matches that I’ve lost, barring Winston-Salem, no disrespect to Frances [Tiafoe], are [to players] in the top 15 in the world,” Murray explained.

“[Stefanos] Tsitsipas, [Hubert] Hurkacz, Casper Ruud. They’re top players and have been this season certainly.

“I have also had a number of opportunities in those matches and not quite taken them.

“Partly that’s down to playing against top players, they’re going to snuff out some opportunities you create, but also there’s been some stuff in those matches that I certainly feel I could have done better.”

“The positive I guess is that I’ve not been losing to guys I should definitely have been winning against at this stage.

“In those matches that I have lost, I really don’t feel like I’ve been ‘outclassed’ or had no chances against them, that it’s not possible that I could win against those players in the future.”

Andy Murray is playing Indian Wells for the first time since 2017 this week, where he will play Adrian Mannarino in the opening round.