Following his accent to the world no. 1 spot, Andy Murray automatically raised the expectancy level around him. While at the latest ATP event of 2016 in London he did great, he got stuck in 2017 after he lost to Djokovic in Doha and then he failed to deliver in Melbourne. From Monday, he will compete at dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship where he is the no. 1 seed of men's singles event. Although being a medium class event of the ATP calendar, this spot gathered some serious competition for the Scot.
Murray's projected trajectory
The world no. 1 and the first seed in Dubai, Murray will commence his quest by playing against Malek Jaziri a 33-year-old Tunisian player ranked 47th in the world.
It'll be their very first meeting in the professional tennis circuit. Andy Murray could benefit from such a draw as he needs to score several wins in a row to build up some momentum. If he gets past Jaziri, he'll face the either Viktor Troicki or Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. In his quarter is a lot of room for him to unfold a pressureless tennis. Except for Giller Muller or Phillip Kohlschreiber ( who gave him a hard time in the past season), Murray's path asserts a significant outcome. Things might get interesting in the semis as he could face Roger Federer. Regarding the final, the bottom half of the draw seems to work in Wawrinka's favour. The Swiss player is the defending champion and he might as well be successful this year.
Murray needs a confirmation
The Scot who did so great in the last months of 2016 in closing the gap between him and Novak Djokovic, is in need of a compelling display of tennis in the near future. His seat is secured for now, but his tennis suffers a lot. For a player who for most of his career was overshadowed by Federer, Nadal or Djokovic, to finally be at the top requires some adjustments.
It looks different to stare down to those titans from above. He has all the ingredients on his pocket, the missing piece is a way to make them give the optimal yield. It's only a matter of time until he gets to figure this out.
