Andy Murray joked about his golf rivalry with Carlos Alcaraz, claiming he is better than the current ATP World No. 1 “by quite a distance.” The Briton, who retired in 2024, responded to an interview from the golf courses in Scotland and referenced his matchups against the Spanish tennis player.
The 22-year-old star lifted his 8th title of the season this Tuesday—which includes two Grand Slam titles—by defeating Taylor Fritz in the Japan Open final, 6-4, 6-4. Alcaraz overcame physical issues from earlier in the week and extended his winning streak in his 9th consecutive final and third title in a row.
Meanwhile, the former coach of Novak Djokovic has been distanced from the Tour since he stopped working with the 24-time Grand Slam champion in May, in the weeks leading up to Roland Garros. Since then, the three-time Grand Slam champion has enjoyed time away from the Tour, though he remains attentive to what is happening.
“He’s got a lot of work to do on golf course”Murray commented in an interview with Sky Sports about how he was enjoying his days off playing golf while in Scotland, and he was asked who is better on the golf course between him and Alcaraz. The two have played a few times on the golf course, and Murray had no doubts when asked who is better. “I’m thinking me by quite a distance,” Murray asserted. “But to be fair, I mean, he’s not been playing that long and he’s got more important things to worry about just now. He’s played unbelievable tennis, great year on the Tour, winning a couple of Slams again and number one of the world, but yeah, he’s got a lot of work to do on the golf course.”
Nevertheless, the Brit did acknowledge that he had suffered one defeat to Alcaraz in a team format: “Yeah, kind of… I mean golf is an interesting game isn’t it? Scoring-wise the handicaps and stuff, we’re playing in teams. We played three times, and me and my partner won twice and him and his coach won once.”
Murray had previously joked about Alcaraz’s golf game a couple of weeks ago. In an interview with The Times, the former World No. 1 claimed that Alcaraz is “a very average golfer, unfortunately for him,” though he did highlight the skill Alcaraz has shown this season, stating, “his tennis reminds me of my favorite footballer growing up, which was Ronaldinho.”
Alcaraz forced to rest post Tokyo
Carlos Alcaraz will likely take some time to play golf in the coming weeks, as he will be recovering from an injury. Following his time at the Japan Open, the Spaniard announced that he withdrew from the Shanghai Masters—where he was the top seed—and will take a few weeks off, concluding the Asian Swing with only one tournament and returning to Europe.
Unless there are last-minute changes, the six-time major champion will have nearly four weeks away from competition until the start of the Paris Masters, the next tournament on his calendar. Alcaraz suffered a fall at the start of last week in his match against Sebastian Baez that bothered his ankle, but it wasn’t significant enough to force him out of the Tokyo tournament. Now, he has opted for a period of recovery away from high-level competition.
