Murray and Zverev will meet in Doha tomorrow with the three-time Major winner leading their head-to-head by two wins to one loss. The German won their last meeting at Indian Wells back in 2021 but has since been sidelined with a freak injury after tearing several ligaments when he went down during last year’s French Open semi-final.
Zverev was further set back in September when he was diagnosed with a bone edema and only returned at January’s Australian Open, where he made the second round. He has a 2-2 record this year after reaching the second round in Rotterdam but received a bye this week as the fourth seed in Doha while Murray battled it out in the first round, needing two-and-a-half hours to get past Lorenzo Sonego, saving three match points en route.
It’s one of many lengthy duels the former world No 1 has been involved in this season, also earning five-set Aussie Open victories over Matteo Berrettini and Thanasi Kokkinakis – with the latter being the longest match and latest finish of his career. But the 35-year-old is feeling good ahead of his meeting with Zverev and downplayed any fears over his physical state as he discussed their clash.
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“I know that, you know, now that I’m going to wake up tomorrow and maybe my body will be a little sore, but I’ll still be able to go out and compete physically well in the next round,” he told reporters after beating Sonego, explaining how his Australian Open run gave him confidence to compete physically. “Two and a half years, three years ago, and even at the end of last year, I was struggling a lot physically and I lost a lot of confidence because of this.”
And Murray is hoping to take advantage of Zverev’s lack of form, with the 25-year-old about to play just his fifth match since last June. “He’s obviously one of the top players in the world,” the current world No 70 said.
“He had a bad injury last year and is just coming back from that. He’s going to be improving every week just now. He’s not quite at the level he was back in the middle of last year, but injuries like that take time. It will be another great match, hopefully I can keep building on this one.”
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But Zverev fired something of a warning back at Murray, confirming that he was finally feeling better on the court with the injury no longer in his mind. The former world No 2 said: “I don’t have it in the back of my mind. A few weeks ago I used to still get signals from my foot.
“It’s in the right direction, and I feel like I can play pretty freely now. I felt that way in Rotterdam. I thought I played a lot better in Rotterdam than I did the previous weeks, even though I lost in the second round. I’m looking forward to the next few weeks, and hopefully it still gets progressively better.”
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