Andy Murray follows in Roger Federer's footsteps with decision to skip clay season, but will it pay off?

Andy Murray will not be playing on the clay this season.

Murray announced ahead of competing at this week’s Rotterdam Open that he will skip the entire clay swing to “rest and recover” ahead of the summer.

It is a decision which means Murray will not play any top-level competitive tennis for two months. One wonders if Murray looked to Roger Federer before making the decision.

Federer decided a few years ago that it was not in his best interests – which are largely centered around winning Wimbledon – to play on clay any longer. In 2016 he played just five matches on clay due to injury, and in 2017 and 2018 he didn’t play on the surface at all.

“In order to try and play on the ATP World Tour for many years to come, I feel it's best to skip the clay court season this year and prepare for the grass and hard court seasons,” said Federer in 2017, when he was 35 and still recovering from knee surgery a year earlier.

That summer Federer won Wimbledon for the eighth time.

He has since played a handful of clay events in 2019 and 2021, including the French Open both years, but the days of Federer slogging it out on dirt on a weekly basis are long gone. Serena Williams also decided several years ago that she would no longer be playing regularly on clay.

It is not surprising that Murray has made the same call.

While Murray often seems to thrive in long, gruelling matches, they come with an element of risk. Having fought so hard to get fully healthy over the last few years following hip surgery, Murray now seems to be on the right track. It is understandable that he would not want to put his body through more stress right now and potentially put his Wimbledon chances in jeopardy.

“It gives me an opportunity to rest, recover, work on my fitness and not take any risks,” explained Murray, who also didn’t play any clay events last year.

Murray did enjoy some success on clay at his peak, reaching three French Open semi-finals between 2014-17 and also the final in 2016. But to play again on clay now would mean putting his body further through the mill.

"You have to put in the hours on clay again,” said Federer in 2019 when he was returning to the surface.

“You have to get used to sliding. It's about the different pressures that clay puts on your thigh and calf muscles compared with grass, for example. When you're playing on grass it's more about explosivity. Here, it's a bit more about endurance. You just have to work on that.

“The work is difficult and it's hard. You have to be ready for long rallies and long matches, so you have to work on different things for your endurance."

It remains to be seen what work Murray will put in instead.

There are no hard-court tournaments on the ATP Tour in April and May, while there are likely to be just a couple on the second-tier ATP Challenger Tour. Further down the ladder there could be other hard-court options, or perhaps Murray will take time to rest and train at the National Tennis Centre ahead of the grass season.

Perhaps by then he will have a full-time coach to help guide his planning. He recently split with coach Jan de Witt following an unsuccessful trial period together at the Australian Open. At the Rotterdam Open he will be working with former coach Dani Vallverdu. However, Vallverdu, who worked with Murray between 2010-14, is not a long-term option as he is still working with Stan Wawrinka, who is currently recovering from foot surgery.

“It’s not been easy to find someone,” said Murray this week. “I’m not as in demand as a few years ago. Ultimately, I want it to be the right person. I’m aware there’s no perfect setup, but medium, longer term I want some stability and will try and get that in the next few weeks.”

With or without a full-time coach, it will be intriguing to see how Murray fares in the next couple of months. He was clearly frustrated with his defeat to qualifier Taro Daniel in the second round of the Australian Open, having shown good form the week before when he reached the final in Sydney. Now he has a solid run of hard-court events in Rotterdam (February 6-13), Doha (February 14-19) and Dubai (February 21-26) before the back-to-back Masters 1000 events in Indian Wells (March 10-20) and Miami (March 23-April 3).

As Murray's ranking is still way down at No 95 in the world he remains dependant on getting wild cards to enter tournaments and avoid going through qualifying. But with hardly any ranking points to defend until the summer there is the chance to move up quickly; a good February could see Murray move close to the top 50 before he heads to Indian Wells. A deep run at either Indian Wells or Miami would bring with it a far bigger haul of points.

Murray will then be off on a two-month break and hoping to come out refreshed on the other side and ready for a strong second half of the season.

- - -

Watch every moment of Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 on discovery+