Murray told how to reach Wimbledon aim as even Djokovic ‘won’t want to play him’

Andy Murray gets his Wimbledon campaign underway against fellow Brit Ryan Peniston on Tuesday. The two-time champion has made it no secret that he wants to reach the second week after failing in his quest to be one of the top 32 seeds at the All England Club. Despite getting the protection of a seeding, Andrew Castle has claimed that even the likes of Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz wouldn’t want to play Murray as he handed him some advice.

Murray is coming into Wimbledon in his best form since long before undergoing his hip resurfacing surgery. The world No 40 won back-to-back Challenger titles on the grass in Surbiton and Nottingham and is now hoping to carry that confidence into SW19.

But the former world No 1 faces a tough draw as he gets the winner of a blockbuster clash between Stefanos Tsitsipas and Dominic Thiem in the second round – if he can get past countryman Peniston. Ben Shelton, Cameron Norrie and Sebastian Korda also loom in the rounds ahead so it will be no easy task for Murray to reach his goal of the second week.

But former pro-turned-pundit Castle believes that no one will want to play Murray at Wimbledon given his grass-court prowess. Speaking to Express Sport on behalf of Grosvenor Sport he said: “You don’t dip back down to play the Challenger tournaments unless you’re serious about what you’re trying to achieve. So, then we ask the question, what is that?

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“That is second week of Grand Slams, that’s involved in the big matches. That’s getting the crowd going and having a fight with someone. Cause that’s what he is, you know he remains that kind of street tennis player. He gives his opponent nothing.”

The broadcaster knew that Murray was serious given all he had already achieved in his career. He added: “You know he just wants to continue to enjoy the scrap and he does, otherwise he wouldn’t still be doing it because you know it’s not like money drives a man like that after all his successes and here we are ten years on from his first Wimbledon.

“11 years on from the US Open, eight years on from the Davis Cup victory, the Olympic gold in 2012. You know when you’ve done that much and you’ve just missed out on a seeding at Wimbledon, which is a shame, but what he wants is to get through the first two rounds, three rounds, maybe four rounds, make the quarter-final and then walk out on Centre Court in the sunshine and just give it a shot against one of the big boys.

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“Nobody wants to play Andy Murray at Wimbledon. That’s as simple as that. I don’t care who it is, Novak, Carlos, whatever, you know, I can think of only eight or nine people that I would bet, would be, you know, likely to beat Murray at Wimbledon if you get into that situation.”

But he said there was one thing Murray had to try and do in order to go far at Wimbledon – avoid long matches. And it will be a hard task for the Brit, who was embroiled in several five-set epics at the Australian Open earlier this year.

“So if you can avoid the massive sort of, you know, scarring 5 setters early on. I can still see him giving us a couple of box office evenings at Wimbledon,” Castle smiled.

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