A few weeks ago, Andy Murray decided to play a challenger at the Rafael Nadal Academy. He had lost both of his games in the return to the individual competition, in Cincinnati and Winston Salem, and was looking to shoot in a lower stratum. His time in Manacor was a true event. A former world number 1, winner of three titles and double Olympic gold, dealing with meritorious players who surely had one of their main references in it. Murray spent two rounds and stayed in eighths with Italian Matteo Viola, another 32-year veteran then placed 240 in the ranking.

Something improved things in the following ATP tournaments, with fights as serious as that held with Fabio Fognini before leaning in the tiebreaker of the third set in the second round of Shanghai, but it was difficult to imagine that the Scots would take the title Sunday in the ATP 250 of Antwerp, after being imposed on Stan Wawrinka by 3-6, 6-4 and 6-4.

Murray, who practically decided to leave the singles in the last Australian Open, before undergoing a hip operation, killed the bug after convalescence playing doubles. Queen's won alongside Feliciano Lopez and had fun at Wimbledon in tandem with Serena Williams. "It means a lot to me, especially after the problems I've had in recent years. It has been a great game. Stan has played amazing, I would both say. I did not expect this and that is why I am very happy. I am very proud of what I have done this week, "he commented tearfully after winning his forty-sixth title in Antwerp, the first since he achieved in Dubai in 2017, when he led the ranking.

In a duel between two Grand Slam champions, after overcoming hard games throughout the week, Murray showed that he has recovered part of the strength that made him for more than a decade one of the main protagonists of the circuit. He broke down in the second set and was again twice in the third, but at no time lowered his arms. Dunblane's, who will be a father for the second time in the coming months, recently assumed that it will be difficult to see him again at the highest level. At the moment, in front of the logical pessimistic barrunto, it is already in first-order battles, without physical mishaps and the bomb-proof mood.

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