Andy Murray doesn’t get to play much golf right now but if he ever meets Ernie Els, he would probably agree with the South African’s ethos of simplicity.
Els, a three-time major champion, once said that when you’re standing over a putt you want to be thinking of nothing, a clarity of thought that has served him well throughout his long, hugely successful career.
For Murray, who today bids for a place in the semi-finals of the French Open, clarity of thought has been key to his return to form this fortnight, having previously struggled with form and motivation in the weeks leading up to the event.
The catalyst, it seems, has been the return to his camp here of Ivan Lendl, the former world No.1, whose 15-week-a-year commitment as Murray’s coach was the reason for his absence for much of this year so far.
Back in tow, Lendl has kept things simple, Murray said, stopping him from over-thinking why it was that his form deserted him this year, having topped the rankings at the end of 2016 thanks to a stunning run of five straight titles.
“It sounds simple but it is not,” said Murray, who plays Japan’s Kei Nishikori today for a place in the last four for the fourth straight year.
“A lot of the time when things are not going well you start over-thinking things. You start wanting to try new things on the practice court, changing tensions in your racquet. You think all sorts of things to work out what is going wrong.”
Murray said Lendl had him doing some of the things he would have done when he was a junior, repetitive drills to get him back in the groove.
“The one thing we did when Ivan got here, we went right back to the basics. The drills we were doing were all very basic, pretty simple drills but we spent a lot of time on the court. We hit lots of balls. No time in the gym really.
“It was just tennis, plain tennis, and literally getting back to doing the basics right, making a lot of balls, making myself difficult to beat. Then, once you start to do that, you get through a couple of matches, you start feeling better, your confidence grows.
“It can be right down here (gestured down low) and it can go right up here pretty quickly and that has been the case so far this tournament.”
Murray’s concentration has been one of the marked improvements in his game this fortnight, but he has also been keeping in touch with events at home, from the recent terror attacks in Manchester and London to the build-up to tomorrow’s General Election at home.
“I try to follow as much of what's going on back home as I can,” Murray said. “When something like that (an attack) happens, it doesn't matter where it is, that gets reported. There was a terrorist attack in Manila a few days ago, maybe doesn't get as much coverage as stuff in Europe.”
As for the election, Murray said he has followed the debates and has made arrangements for his postal vote to be brought to Paris. Me and my wife, we are actually getting ours brought out tomorrow,” he said. “And then it will be taken back.”
Tax has been a big issue in the election and Murray was asked if he would ever consider following the example of many of the top players by leaving Britain and becoming a tax exile.
“No, because I like living at home,” he said. “The only chance of me living somewhere else is if I had a bunch of friends or some of my family were living elsewhere and I would move to spend time with them.
“But I wouldn't want to go and live somewhere not to pay any tax and not to have any of my family and friends around me. I wouldn't do that.”
Murray will be part of a packed schedule today after heavy rain forced the Novak Djokovic-Dominic Thiem and Rafael Nadal-Pablo Carreno Busta matches to be held over.
In the two matches that were completed, Timea Bacsinksy beat Kristina Mladenovic 6-4, 6-4 and Jelena Ostapenko came from behind to beat Caroline Wozniacki 4-6, 6-2, 6-2.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here