Andy Murray is keen to earn a Stuttgart grass win after losing his last meeting with upcoming opponent Alexander Bublik.
The pair will clash in Thursday’s second round at the Weissenhof Club with the Scot still smarting after taking a loss to the Kazakh last March in the Indian Wells second round.
Former No. 1 Murray has been finding his feet on his favourite surface, reaching the Surbiton Challenger semis last week and making his German grass debut over Christopher O’Connell.
The 35-year-old has nothing but respect for former rival Rafael Nadal after the Spaniard lifted a phenomenal 14th Roland Garros trophy at the weekend in Paris.
And after half a decade of surgery and injury recovery, he is ready to start making his own mark at the top ATP level again.
“My motivation comes from loving the game,” the three-time Grand Slam winner said “as an older athlete you have to be willing to play through some pain.
“But that is much easier when you are competing for major titles. Over the last four or five years my ranking dropped to 3-400 in the world.
“At one stage I missed an entire year of tennis. I love the game and know I can compete at the highest level again.
“I’ve not shown consistency, but I’ve had one-off wins over a lot of top guys.
“I have to hope that with no more injuries and playing a lot of tournaments I can start doing that again regularly.”
