Andy Murray’s running on empty, says John McEnroe

Pain game: Andy Murray suffers during his straight sets defeat, which he claimed was "the biggest disappointment of my career"
13 April 2012

John McEnroe has claimed Andy Murray had ruined his chance to win the US Open by over-training.

The Scot crashed out in a shock 7-5, 6-2, 6-2 fourth-round defeat by Marin Cilic in New York and will now drop down the world rankings to No3 after Rafael Nadal reached the quarter-finals with a win over Gael Monfils.

The British No1, who rated the loss "the biggest disappointment of my career", lacked the fire and passion of previous rounds as he fell to the 16th seed from Croatia.

The 22-year-old reached the US Open final last year, where he was beaten by Roger Federer, but he is now nursing a wrist injury and heading back to JFK airport to catch a flight back to London alongside coach Miles Maclagan and fitness trainers Jezz Green and Matt Little, both of whom will be angered by McEnroe's blast.

Former great McEnroe, who had tipped the Briton to win the US Open, said: "Murray had a couple of set points in that opening set against Cilic and then the wheels came off completely. I want to know what happened to his energy?

"Murray has worked hard on his game but my concern is that he is over-trained at this point. He has his own routine and needs to be in great shape — no doubt about that. Roger Federer has it worked out in terms of what he does on his days off and Murray would be better slacking off because he has done all the work that's needed at this point. You don't need to work as hard as he does between matches."

Murray, though, vowed to prove the critics wrong by winning the Australian Open in January, despite the Cilic loss. First, he will undergo intensive treatment on his left wrist in the hope of facing Poland in the Davis Cup in Liverpool, starting next Friday.

But the Scot, who went into the US Open as the hottest player on hardcourts this season, insists his body did not break down as a result of his fitness regime.

He is already planning to repeat the arduous sessions in Florida in December and believes his rise up the rankings is due to the pain he suffers in the heat just before Christmas.

Murray said: "I am going to work as hard as I can to be ready to win a slam in Australia because I have got a very good chance of doing it. I'll be a better player next year.

"I will come back better from this loss and can learn a lot from what happened this week. That is what I have done most times when I have suffered bad results, coming back stronger.

"This is the worst result of my tennis career and that really makes it disappointing. I plan on playing in the Davis Cup in Liverpool and now I am going to take a few days off, go home, rest and hopefully I will be okay.

"I leave it to my doctors and physio to let me know what I should be doing with it and how much I should be playing and how much time I need to take off."

The hope is that Murray is not facing the same kind of serious wrist damage he sustained to his right hand that meant he missed the French Open and Wimbledon in 2007.

He will not take any chances, even if it means missing a Davis Cup tie Britain must win to avoid the ignominy of relegation to Euro/Africa Group Two. This time, it is the left wrist, which is crucial to his world-class double back hand shot — and he fired off just one winner with this weapon against Cilic, who now meets Juan Martin del Potro in the last eight.

Murray added: "My game wasn't up to scratch and it's unfortunate but sometimes that can happen. I just didn't play well enough.

"It has been a very good season. I improved my results at Wimbledon and at the French Open while equalling my best result in Australia. Now, I have to make sure I work on my game a lot to make sure that at the beginning of the year I am ready to win one.

"In the previous match, against Paul Capdeville, I felt a little bit low on energy and while it's not an excuse, it's not good to feel that way in a Grand Slam. Against Cilic, I just couldn't find my way into games and he was dominating a lot of the points. One of the good things about me in the last couple of years is that I find ways to get back into the matches mentally but it didn't happen."

Nadal's 6-7, 6-3, 6-1, 6-3 victory over Monfils featured a security scare on centre court.

After the end of the match, a male fan kissed Nadal and took a picture. Remarkably, the Spaniard smiled throughout the incident and later said: "The guy was smiling and said I love you' and he kissed me — It wasn't a problem."

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