Saturday 14 February 2015 17:08, UK
Andy Murray's former coach Miles Maclagan told Sky Sports that the British No 1 may need to take time to recharge his "emotional batteries" after a disappointing quarter-final exit in the Rotterdam Open.
Murray was the top seed in the tournament and despite relatively straightforward wins over Vasek Pospisil and Nicolas Mahut in the early rounds; he slumped to a disappointing straights sets defeat to Simon, a player ranked 15 places lower than him in the world, in the last eight.
Rotterdam was Murray's first regular ATP Tour event in 2015 and his return to court after the Australian Open final defeat to Novak Djokovic in January.
Maclagan, who was part of Murray's coaching team between 2007-10, told Sky Sports Tennis that the 2013 Wimbledon champion could still need some time to recover from the gruelling four-set loss to Djokovic in Melbourne.
He said: "I expected him to win [against Simon] but as he said in the interview, he got ‘out-Murrayed’.
"He was confused and didn’t quite know the balance to strike, which is so often what Murray does to his opponents.
"I just wonder whether perhaps the emotional batteries haven’t been recharged yet. The Australian [Open] was an incredible effort from him and that big final was a tough match for a long time, and it takes a long time for these guys [to recover].
"He needs to make sure he does take his time off to recharge because he needs to play a fired-up brand of tennis to play his best.
"Let’s not forget the effort he put in at the end of last year. That was six events in a row which would have also have taken a lot [out of him].
"That was new ground for him and even at this age and stage of his career he’s learning the balance of things, and maybe he thought that Australian doesn’t take quite as much out of him because he’s been in it before."
Errors
Four-time Wimbledon doubles champion Peter Fleming was also left confused by Murray's lacklustre 6-4 6-2 defeat on Friday and said that the 27-year-old may be finding it difficult to pick himself up for the smaller tournaments on tour.
"Andy wasn’t sharp," said Fleming. "Andy didn’t play the way we know he can. Against a guy like Simon, who is coming into form again I would say, they have very similar games – Simon never misses and moves extremely well and normally Andy can just out-hit him.
"But yesterday, as he said, when he tried to out hit him he made errors and that’s not good enough for him.
"As he matures and gets older the smaller tournaments perhaps aren’t quite as important to him in the big scheme of things and so perhaps he didn’t practice quite so intensely prior to this event or didn’t start back as soon as he might of when he was younger.
"Or perhaps it was just a physically draining Australian Open for him and maybe he needs more rest."
Watch the ABN AMRO final live on Sky Sports 3 from 2.30pm on Sunday February 15.
