Andy Murray to join Novak Djokovic at Paris Masters 1000 after receiving wildcard
Andy Murray says he's in the 'bad books' after losing ring
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Andy Murray has been announced as one of the wildcard entrants into next week’s Paris Masters 1000. The former world No 1 had cast some doubt over his participation in the final Masters event of the season, toying with the idea of entering the qualifying instead of accepting a wildcard, to get more matches under his belt. The tournament announced on Thursday afternoon (October 28) that the 2016 champion would be competing in the main draw.
Murray’s comeback has been gaining momentum in recent weeks, and the three-time Grand Slam champion fired a defiant message after losing in the second round of the Erste Bank Open on Wednesday (October 27), saying he would be reaching the latter stages of tournaments “sooner” rather than later.
The current world No 156 had the first half of his season derailed by a bout of Covid and a groin injury, and also withdrew from a tournament after the birth of his fourth child.
He made a convincing comeback during the grass-court season, getting an unlucky draw in Queens where he lost to top seed and eventual-champion Matteo Berrettini, before he stormed to the third round at Wimbledon.
After scoring a four-set win over 24th seed Nikoloz Basilashvili and beating qualifier Oscar Otte in five sets, the three-time Major champion lost to 10th seed and top young player Denis Shapovalov in the third round – something that would become the story of the latter part of his season.
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Murray has often found himself losing to the top young guys, falling twice to Hubert Hurkacz in the space of two months, losing to Frances Tiafoe in Winston-Salem, pushing Stefanos Tsitsipas to five sets at the US Open before losing, and suffering defeat at the hands of Alexander Zverev in Indian Wells.
However, the former world No 1 has continued to improve, getting revenge over Tiafoe in Antwerp last week, and finally beating Hurkacz in Vienna on Monday (October 25).
He is now set to continue his comeback at the Paris Masters, the tournament in which he secured the world No 1 ranking for the first time back in 2016.
Murray had initially cast doubt over his participation in the final Masters 1000 event of the year, admitting he was considering qualifying as a way to get more match wins.
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“There’ll be a decision on the final Paris wildcard on Monday, but I might even play the qualies there,” he said after his loss to Diego Schwartzman in the European Open second-round last Thursday (October 21).
He continued: “Sport is a results business. Play well or poorly doesn’t really matter if you lose matches. You need to be winning.
“That’s what I want in the last few tournaments. They are really strong tournaments and there are no guarantees the results will come, but I want to win more matches.”
However, it seems the 2016 champion has now backtracked on his decision to enter qualifying, as he has joined Richard Gasquet, Pierre-Hughes Herbert and Arthur Rinderknech in receiving a wildcard into the main draw.
Murray still remained uncertain on whether he would receive a wildcard into the season-ending Masters following his defeat to Carlos Alcaraz in Vienna on Wednesday night (October 27).
“I’m definitely playing in Stockholm,” the former world No 1 said, confirming his participation in the ATP 250 event starting on November 7.
“I think Paris was looking positive, but not 100 percent sure yet, so we’ll wait to see on that.”
It seems things have worked out in Murray’s favour, as he will be joining his old rival and long-time friend Novak Djokovic in the main draw when the tournament kicks off next week.
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