Murray feels like he’s starting from scratch

WASHINGTON: Former world No 1 Andy Murray feels in some ways like he will be starting his career all over again when he makes his return to hardcourt tennis in Washington on Monday.

The tournament will be Murray’s third since hip surgery in January and mark his return to the hard courts for the first time since March 2017 at Indian Wells.

“It sort of feels like I am starting from scratch again,” the 31-year-old Scot told Tennis TV. “I haven’t been in that position since I was kind of 18 so I’m looking forward to it. It’s going to be hard but it should be fun.”

ISNER IN ELITE CLUB WITH ATLANTA TITLE

ATLANTA: John Isner joined elite company when he beat compatriot Ryan Harrison 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 to win the Atlanta Open for the fifth time. Isner became the fifth American to win the same event at least five times after Jimmy Connors, John Mcenroe, Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi.

DANILOVIC JUMPS 75 SPOTS IN WTA RANKINGS

PARIS: Serbian teenager Olga Danilovic jumped 75 places in the latest WTA rankings released Monday on the strength of her win on Sunday in Moscow. The 17-year-old saw off Russian home hope Anastasia Potapova 7-5, 6-7 (1/7), 6-4 for her maiden title to jump from 187th to 112th A week ago, when Sebastian Vettel spun out while leading the German Grand Prix, this was labelled the error of the year, a pivotal mistake that would cost him the world championship. This is nonsense, since a lockup of the wheels in tricky wet conditions can affect even the most legendary of drivers, plus the German race demonstrated that Ferrari was clearly the fastest car on track (in dry conditions). With nearly half the season to go, they had to keep a cool head and chip away at the lead.

The true catastrophe took place at the sweltering Hungarian Grand Prix this Sunday. Lewis Hamilton won the race 17 seconds ahead of Vettel, who was lapping 1.5 seconds faster than Hamilton’s Mercedes. This is damning evidence. It is shameful that the Ferrari drivers could not muscle past and dominate this race. Ferrari failed, and so did their Number One driver.

To recap, Hamilton was ahead by less than 7 seconds when he stopped for tyres. A pitstop in Hungary takes about 20 seconds, so he emerged 13.5 seconds behind Vettel and, on new rubber, was expected to reel him in. Incredibly enough, Vettel extended his lead at the front, despite worn tyres. If he’d stopped two laps later when 15 seconds ahead, he could rejoin five seconds behind Hamilton and, on new ultrasoft tyres, soon fill his mirrors with scarlet. The Ferraripace,evenonoldtyresand a slower tyre compound, was too good to be true. We faced the mouth-watering prospect of 30 laps of Hamilton having to defend against a galloping Ferrari.

Ferrari, perhaps unused to being the faster team, made the incorrect — and gluttonous — call to let Vettel go much longer before stopping, hoping their faster-tyre advantage would be even more acute in the second half of