Andy Murray says he needs to get fitter before Wimbledon

 

FRENCH OPEN

  • Venue: Roland Garros, Paris
  • Date: 27 May - 10 June

Coverage: Live text commentary on BBC Sport website from 13:00 BST; live commentary on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra and online from 13:00

Andy Murray says he needs to work on his fitness levels before Wimbledon after finding it hard to keep up with David Ferrer on Wednesday.

The world number four was beaten 6-4 6-7 (3-7) 6-3 6-2 by the Spaniard in the French Open quarter-finals.

His attention now turns to grass and the events at Queen's and Wimbledon.

"I need to get some good physical work in between now and Wimbledon. I need to make sure I am in slightly better shape," said Murray.

"I think that is going to be important for me. I was a little bit out of breath after some of the longer rallies today."

Image of Jonathan Overend Jonathan Overend BBC tennis correspondent

"The French Open is a continuing puzzle for Murray. There are simply more players who can beat him on the surface and, if he's honest, when he saw Ferrer and Rafael Nadal in his half of the draw, he suspected a title challenge was unlikely to be in 2012. He's not a member of the top five on clay and is he even in the top seven?

Murray, 25, announced in April that he would play at Queen's Club for another five years, until 2016.

His participation in this year's event, which starts on Monday, has been in question because of an ongoing back problem that caused problems in his early-round victories at Roland Garros.

"I haven't even discussed the possibilities [of not playing] with any of the guys who I work with so the plan is to play Queens as it always has been," he insisted.

"It's my preparation for Wimbledon and it's worked well for me but I will sit down with the guys and discuss what I am going to do over the next two weeks before the tournament starts."

Despite Murray failing to match his last-four appearance of 2011 the Scot was still pleased with his overall performance in Paris.

"I think it was a good tournament for me," he said.

"I probably wasn't feeling as good as I did coming in last year. I lost to a better clay-court player than me."

Murray had not beaten the world number six in their previous three meetings on clay, and he did not help his chances of halting that run by making 59 unforced errors during the match.

"I'll need to work on some things in my clay-court game for next year," continued Murray. "But it's not the first time he's won against me on clay. It was going to be a tough match for me, and it proved that way.

"I thought I played some good tennis. I just didn't convert."