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Murray hints at less demanding schedule

Cape Town - Andy Murray has led many to believe that he will reduce the amount of tournaments he plays in after attributing Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer's success at the Australian Open to mental and physical freshness.

After confirming that Federer would feature at Andy Murray Live, an exhibition match in Scotland aimed at raising funds for UNICEF, the Scot then fielded questions on his disappointing Australian Open.

In understanding Nadal and Federer’s success at the tournament, Murray pointed to both players' lengthy injury lay-offs in 2016.

He felt that entering a grand slam raw but healthy and fit could be more beneficial than entering a grand slam battle-hardened but slightly fatigued.

"It's incredible what he did in Australia after such a long break," Murray said of Federer.

"We play so much, a lot of the year. Sometimes coming to events fresh can have some huge advantage.

"Him and Rafa were both coming back from a pretty significant period of time out and they both played extremely well.

"Maybe that's something we can all learn from moving forwards."

The schedule on Murray's official website reveals that he will play in the Dubai Duty Free Championships in late February, the Paribas Open in the middle of March, the Miami Open in late March, the Monte Carlo Masters in the middle of April, the Madrid Open in May, the Internazionali BNL D’Italia in May and then Roland Garros at the end of the same month.

That is a lot of tennis.

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