ATP: Fitness training: Andy Murray on the trail of Tiger Woods

Andy Murray leaves nothing to chance on his way back to the top of the world and wants to lay the foundation for the coming season with a well-known fitness guru in the USA.

Golf icon Tiger Woods, football star Peyton Manning, Real Madrid footballer and Italian national player Mario Balotelli, rugby god Johnny Wilkinson and various professionals from the US NHL ice hockey league. The list of his (former) patients is long – and extremely well-known.

Bill Knowles, athletics coach and rehab specialist for top athletes, currently has a three-time Grand Slam winner under his wing who, after a hip surgery at the beginning of the year, finally wants to rejoin the world’s top athletes. His name is Andy Murray.

The 31-year-old, only number 263 in the WTA ranking, is currently in the Philadelphia Union Academy, run by Knowles, according to the Times and the Daily Mail. Murray had already used the services of the fitness guru in the past years.

This time, however, the challenge seems even more ambitious than it was then. Murray has had some difficult months, with some rays of hope, but also some sensitive setbacks. In summer, the former number one in the tennis universe had even tumbled out of the top 800.

Since his comeback in June after a one-year break, the Scot has competed in six tournaments and won seven out of twelve matches. At the US Open in August, his first major since Wimbledon 2017, “Sir Andy” failed in the second round against left-hander Fernando Verdasco (Spain).

Murray then only played in Shenzhen, China, at the end of September, where he lost to Verdasco in the quarter-finals. The Londoner of his choice ended his season prematurely – and has since dedicated himself to preparing for 2019. He plans to start at the tournament in Brisbane (from 30 December 2018). In the role of the challenger who wants to know it again.