LONDON - Andy Murray has accepted he will lose his place at the top of the tennis world but insists he is driven by trophies, not rankings.
‘It’s most likely that I’ll lose the No 1 spot,’ he said. ‘If you want to stay at No 1 you can’t have periods of three months of the year where you’re not winning matches, not performing well in the big events, which was the case for me until the French Open.
‘So more than likely that will happen and that’s fine. I’m not trying to win Wimbledon for the ranking points - I want to win Wimbledon, that’s my goal.’
The 30-year-old Scot had endured a rotten start to the year before his run to the semi-finals at Roland Garros. He has a healthy lead at the top of the rankings but a huge haul of points to defend for the rest of the season, with Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer well placed to leapfrog him.
Murray was speaking at Jaguar’s launch of their new XF Sportbrake, where he later enjoyed a doubles match with heavyweight champion of the world Anthony Joshua and comedians Rob Brydon and Jimmy Carr.
He has been putting in some rather more serious time on the court this week at Queen’s Club and Wimbledon, as he steps up his preparation for the grass season.
‘I’m still quite a long way from where I want to be in terms of my game so that’s why I was back on the practice court quite soon after Paris,’ he said.
The two-time Wimbledon champion has backed the appointment of Scott Lloyd, son of ex-Davis Cup captain David and nephew of former British No 1 John, as chief executive of the Lawn Tennis Association. He replaces Canadian Michael Downey in January.
‘With the amount of changes we’ve had at the top of tennis and bringing in people from different sports, each time you bring in someone new it takes seven, eight months to start to understand the sport, to speak to everyone, it feels a little bit like wasted time,’ he said.
‘So having someone who’s been around the sport and probably knows a lot of the people he should be talking to is a positive thing.’
Meanwhile, Federer has suffered his second defeat of the season. The Swiss, in his first match of the grass-court season, lost 2-6, 7-6, 6-4 in Stuttgart to world No 302 Tommy Haas, 39.