Andy Murray eyes lighter schedule and hints at reducing clay-court events

Andy Murray admits he would like to play a reduced schedule in future and cutting back on the number of clay-court events he enters could be one of the ways to ease the load. “What’s relevant is really how many matches you’re winning. If you play a reduced schedule – like 10 or 11 tournaments in a year – but you only win 10 matches, playing 20 matches in a year is not really enough,” he told Sky Sports during an interview. “You ideally want to have a lighter schedule and be winning matches. When you’re coming back from a long lay-off, when rankings drop and you’re not seeded in tournaments, it’s difficult to do that. “I’ll manage my schedule based on how I’m doing in the tournaments. If I’m winning a lot of matches then I’ll certainly reduce the amount [of tournaments] than what I used to play. “I think in the 2016 season, which was my best year on the Tour, I think I played 15 or 16 tournaments. It’s not really that many over the course of a year, but if you’re winning lots it can add up to being like 80 matches, which is significant. “I’ll try to reduce more the number of matches I play rather than worrying about entering tournaments or not. “If I win a tournament, I can always skip the following week, which is something I’ve not done in the past.”

Real Madrid’s plane: Inside the Champions League winners’ luxury £340m Emirates Airbus A380 (PHOTO)