sport news Andy Murray looks to get back to his best at the Australian Open after ... trends now
The eve of tournament withdrawals of Ajla Tomljanovic and Paula Badosa have prompted talk that a curse of Netflix might be under way at the Australian Open.
The top Australian and Spaniard are two of the players featuring in the new Break Point series about the tour, and both have been forced out with injuries.
Andy Murray would desperately love to back up the curse theory by knocking out another of the documentary's main participants, Matteo Berrettini, when they meet in the first round early Tuesday morning.
Andy Murray is gearing up for the Australian Open after a productive off-season
The 35-year-old is enthusiastic about that prospect, less so about the actual Netflix series portraying the lives of varied personalities on the circuit. It is not really his style.
'It's not something that I'm desperate to get back to the hotel room and stick on, but I don't know if I'm the person that it's supposed to be aimed at. I'm not sure if I'll ever watch it,' reflected Murray.
'I did find at times like last year when I was at tournaments there were a lot of people around the players. I don't know how easy it is for people to be themselves. For me personally, if you stick 10 cameras around me I don't feel like I'm going to be completely natural in that situation.'
Infinitely more important for the twice Wimbledon champion is to show that he amounts to more than the chorus-line player he was in 2022, which he ended ranked No 49 with a season match record of 26-19.
The year ended on a particularly dismal note when, playing the worst match one can ever recall from him, he lost at the indoor Paris Masters to Frenchman Gilles Simon, who was about to retire.
The 35-year-old is looking to return to his best after a disappointing 2022
Some might have been tempted after that to join Simon in smelling the roses and spending more time with the family. Murray instead responded by criticising his own training regimen and then took himself off to Florida for three weeks hard slog with his mentor, Ivan Lendl.
Unusually Lendl, who is a reluctant traveller, was persuaded to come early to Australia to supervise his player's preparations for
