{"id":310093,"date":"2025-11-26T14:28:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T14:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/310093\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T14:28:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T14:28:13","slug":"inspired-by-michael-jordan-and-andy-murray-after-least-enjoyable-season-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/310093\/","title":{"rendered":"Inspired by Michael Jordan and Andy Murray after “least enjoyable” season"},"content":{"rendered":"

He spoke at the time of needing to \u201ccompletely and utterly disconnect from tennis\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI needed a rest,\u201d Popyrin said this week in reflection.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went nearly two-and-a-half to three months in a row without a break, and that\u2019s just travelling, practising, playing, and I think it got to a point where the week before Wimby, I didn\u2019t feel ready \u2013 and that was already the second slam that it happened in.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was probably the least enjoyable year of my career so far, but I took a lot of lessons about how I want to approach the rest of my career.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is easy to understand why Popyrin struggled at times when you also throw in the build-up of pressure from defending the most points of his career from his landmark Masters 1000 title triumph in Montreal<\/a> in August 2024.<\/p>\n

Loading<\/p>\n

De Minaur, Carlos Alcaraz, Taylor Fritz, Jack Draper and Iga Swiatek were among the high-profile stars this year to bemoan the relentless nature of the tennis calendar.<\/p>\n

But Popyrin is taking a different approach as he plots a return to the top echelons.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m in the middle to the end of my career now, so I feel like I want to start enjoying travelling. I want to enjoy all the countries that I go to,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI listen to my coaches, Wayne [Ferreira] and Nev [Godwin], and I also listened to interviews with Michael Jordan and Andy Murray. They all say that once it\u2019s gone, they regret not enjoying it more. They all say that it\u2019s the best thing that\u2019s ever happened to them in their life.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t get that feeling of playing sport anywhere else. I don\u2019t want to have regrets at the end of my career of not enjoying it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Popyrin\u2019s fiancee, Amy Pederick, already travels with him to almost every tournament, but he plans to bring more family with him as he negotiates the tour.<\/p>\n

He also plans to see more of the countries he travels to as part of that mindset transformation.<\/p>\n

Popyrin and Pederick also used this extended off-season, which officially ends on Friday when his pre-season begins, to live like \u201cnormal people\u201d. They chose to stay in Dubai rather than go on holiday, and relish the comforts of home-cooked meals and spending time with family.<\/p>\n

In the weeks ahead, he will trade on-court blows with the likes of Karen Khachanov, Miomir Kecmanovic, Denis Shapovalov, and Draper as he prepares for the Australian Open.<\/p>\n

Popyrin will start his season in Brisbane.<\/p>\n

\"Popyrin\u2019s<\/p>\n

Popyrin\u2019s win at the Canadian Open in 2024 was the biggest victory of his career.Credit: Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really looking forward to getting back home. It\u2019s my favourite time of the year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get to spend time with my family in Australia also. That\u2019s going to be a big thing next year for me; trying to enjoy being on the tour as much as possible. To start in Australia, in front of the home crowd, will be unbelievable. I can\u2019t wait for it, honestly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alexei Popyrin was with Emirates at the Burj Khalifa to launch its Dubai-themed suite at next year\u2019s Australian Open<\/p>\n

News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport are sent every Monday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He spoke at the time of needing to \u201ccompletely and utterly disconnect from tennis\u201d. \u201cI needed a rest,\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":309359,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-310093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}