Andy Murray, who won Montreal and reached the semifinals of Cincinnati the following week, says he wasn’t planning on playing the Western & Southern Open in Ohio, but switched his plans and is happy with his hardcourt preparation for the U.S. Open. The 28-year-old also played Washington, D.C. three weeks ago, where he lost his opening-round match to Teymuraz Gabashvili.
“The plan was not to play here. That was my plan, so that I could do a post‑Canada—basically train for four or five days,” Murray said following his loss to Roger Federer in Cincinnati. “So have three, four days off, and then sort of be able to train hard for four or five days. Get a sort of mini training block in before the U.S. Open.
“But then obviously didn't work out that way. In Washington I lost early, and then we discussed it a bit after Canada as well because of the way that the few matches at the end went there. But that was the plan.”
The world No. 3 still saw his decision to play Washington as a good one.
“I feel like it takes me a bit of time going from grass to hard courts for my body to adjust,” Murray said. “I felt that maybe going over to Washington early and getting on the hard courts a little bit sooner might help. I feel like it has. My body actually feels pretty good considering how much I played.”
With the U.S. Open a week away, the 2012 champion will amend his usual training schedule because of his recent play.
“I won’t spend so much time in the gym next week because I played so much,” said Murray. “I do feel like I'll be able to make some improvements before the US Open.”