"Don't sweat the technique!"
The title of an early 1990s hip-hop hit, recorded by duo Eric B. and Rakim in New York City, can also apply to Andy Murray this year at the US Open.
Speaking to reporters on Saturday at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Murray revealed that he adjusted his technique following his Wimbledon second-round loss to Stefanos Tsitsipas—changes intended to put him on the front foot more in matches.
"I really feel like I needed to make a change to certain shots in my game if I wanted to win more of those matches and dictate more of those matches," said Murray, who began tweaking his strokes after taking a weeklong vacation post-Wimbledon. "So I did that, went away and worked on things for a period of time."
Since then, the Briton has played just four matches, compiling a 3-1 record. His lone defeat came in three sets to top seed Taylor Fritz in Washington, D.C., before he was forced to withdraw ahead of the Toronto third round with a small abdominal tear that also kept him out of Cincinnati.
But Murray has a positive outlook entering the US Open, buoyed by a strong week of practice. He's had no issues on the court as he builds himself back into match condition.
The 2012 US Open champion knows exactly what he wants his game to look like when the tournament begins. He's confident that his new and improved strokes will help him put theory into practice.
"Some of the issues are sort of more technical, rather than in terms of the way that I want to approach and play those matches. Everyone's sort of in agreement about how to do that," he explained.
"But my feeling is that you need to be equipped with all the tools to allow you, like if you want to play more up at the net, or you want to dictate more points and generate more power, you need to have a certain technique and some of my some of my shots were kind of letting me down at certain stages.
"So my feeling was I wanted to put in some work technically to allow me to play the way that I want to, the way that my team wants me to. So we did that and it has helped."
The only downside is Murray's relative lack of match play since implementing those adjustments.
"Because there's so little time during the year and so few breaks in the year it's really hard to [change], because you don't want to be thinking about technique when you're playing matches," he continued. "It's really not good be doing that. So you need time to work on things, to feel comfortable with it. And granted I didn't have loads of time after Wimbledon, but I'm very clear about what those technical points are. I've been working on them every day in practice and in the matches that I've played since I started again. It's been good."
Murray will begin his 17th US Open campaign on Tuesday against Frenchman Corentin Moutet. He is seeking to advance beyond the third round here for the first time since 2016, when he reached the quarterfinals; his most recent trip beyond the third round at any Slam came at Wimbledon in 2017, when he also advanced to the quarters.
