Murray Consider Drop To Challenger Tour Amid Losing Run

Andy Murray has revealed he may drop down to the Challenger Tour after his fifth consecutive defeat on Tuesday.

Murray was beaten in straight sets by the Czech Republic’s Tomas Machac at the Open 13 Provence in Marseille, which was his fourth loss in four matches this year.

The two-time Wimbledon champion will next play at the Qatar Open in Doha in the week beginning February 19.

“The only way is to find solutions to win matches. That can come in training, working on your game and your feelings,” Murray told French media on Tuesday.

“But what happens in training doesn’t always transfer over to matches. In 2016, when I was No 1 in the world, my coach told me I had only won two or three training sets in the whole year.

“This year, I’ve won basically all of them and I can’t win a single match! You need to perform in competition, that’s the only thing that counts. I may have to go to the Challengers.”

Murray started the year with a three-set defeat to Grigor Dimitrov then lost at the Australian Open to Tomas Martin Etcheverry.

After two weeks off, the three-time Grand Slam champion travelled to the Open Sud de France but was narrowly beaten by Benoit Paire 6-2 6-7 3-6.

After that match he responded to criticism on X, formerly known as Twitter, by vowing “I won’t quit”.