PARIS (AP) —
Despite falling just short of a second successive French Open final, Andy Murray feels he is getting back to his best —
just in time for Wimbledon.
Murray arrived
at Roland Garros on the back of a poor run of form which included early exits
at Indian Wells, Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Madrid and Rome.
The top-ranked
Murray has improved over the past two weeks, shaking off a cold to reach the
semifinals, where he lost 6-7 (6), 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (3), 6-1 to third-seeded Stan
Wawrinka on Friday.
"I'm proud
of the tournament I had," Murray said. "I did well considering. I was
one tiebreak away from getting to the final when I came in really struggling.
So I have to be proud of that."
Murray feels he
ultimately paid the price for his bad results in the build-up to the Grand Slam
tournament.
"Maybe the lack
of matches hurt me a little bit in the end today," he said. "That was
a very high intensity match. A lot of long points. When you haven't been
playing loads over four, four-and-a-half hours, that can catch up to you a
little bit.
"I only
have myself to blame for that, for the way I played coming into the tournament.
But, you know, I turned my form around really, really well and ended up having
a good tournament, all things considered."
Murray ended
2016 at No. 1 after a string of successes, including a Wimbledon title, an
unprecedented second consecutive Olympic gold medal and runner-up finishes at
the Australian Open and French Open.
The 30-year-old
is hoping his performance at Roland Garros is a sign he is getting back to that
level.
"I don't
know how close I am to that," Murray said. "You know, I played pretty
well these last few matches. Even when you're playing well, you're not going to
win every match you play, but I put myself in a position to reach a slam final,
so I'm obviously playing pretty good."
Murray, who said
he expected to have more ups and downs at the tournament than he did, believes
he can take the positives from the French Open onto grass — specifically
Wimbledon, where he will be bidding to retain his title.
"I do feel
like having an event like this can give me a boost, and hopefully have a strong
grass court season and try to understand what worked well this event and what
worked well in the sort of 10 days in the buildup and the practices,"
Murray said.
Wimbledon starts July 3 at the All England
Club.
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