Murray makes strange ‘nervous’ request ahead of all-British clash

Andy Murray has explained the reason he likes being “nervous” after facing some butterflies ahead of his second-round match in Indian Wells. The world No 55 is now through to round three to face an all-British showdown with Jack Draper and talked up their match.

Murray faced a late change of opponent for his Indian Wells second round when 15th seed Pablo Carreno Busta withdrew and was replaced by lucky loser Radu Albot. While the Brit was able to secure his first straight-set victory in five months, he admitted after the match that he felt “nervous” when he learned he would face a new rival.

And the three-time Grand Slam champion says he wants to wake up with nerves when he is competing, as he now faces compatriot Draper in the next round. “I didn’t know if it was because of that. I was trying to give reasons for why I may have felt that way. I felt nervous on the court today,” Murray said of his worries going into his clash with Albot after preparing to face Carreno Busta.

The former world No 1 went on to explain that he didn’t have to make too much of a tactical adjustment before sharing his stance on being stressed ahead of matches. He continued: “You know, a lot of the way that Radu plays and Carreno Busta plays, it’s not too dissimilar in terms of the way they like to play points and maybe where and how they like to serve.

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“Obviously there is differences in their games, but it wasn’t a huge change in terms of my game plan or what I was expecting going into the match. But, yeah, maybe I felt like it was a good opportunity for me and that, you know, the draw had opened up slightly. Yeah, and obviously wanted to try and finish the match quickly.”

Murray managed to do just that, avoiding one of the seeds thanks to the Spaniard’s withdrawal and making the most of it by dropping just seven games to his new opponent. And his response came as something of a surprise when he was asked if the nerves were a “rare” occurrence.

“I mean, I generally much prefer feeling nervous when I play matches and feeling pressure,” he confessed. “It just sort of felt a bit out of sync with the situation. You know, like I was in pretty decent control of the match. Like I said, I was serving well. I was hitting the ball pretty well. But there was just more tension than probably there should have been out there on the court.”

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Murray now meets young countryman Draper for the first time on the tour, though he beat the 21-year-old at the Battle of the Brits exhibition in December. “It will be a good match. He obviously plays really well,” the world No 55 said of his clash with Draper.

“He’s not actually competed that much on the tour, but when he has done, he’s always performed really well. I think he’s going to be a top, top player for a long time, providing he stays healthy. It will be a good match.”

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