Murray’s playing schedule under wraps

JUDGING by the inclusion of Andy Murray on yesterday’s entry list for the Fever-Tree Championships at Queen’s, you might imagine that everything remains on track in Murray’s comeback.

Unfortunately, the real picture is considerably less rosy.

The Daily Telegraph understands that there is little prospect of Murray fulfilling any of his grass-court commitments, which include not only Queen’s but also the Rosmalen event in Holland, not to mention Wimbledon itself.

Whispers from close to the Murray camp suggest that the American hard-court season, which only starts in earnest in August, is now the more realistic target. There is even a theory that he should be especially cautious and delay his comeback until the end of the year.

It is now almost 10 months since Murray’s last competitive match – last year’s Wimbledon quarterfinal against Sam Querrey – and the outlook has failed to improve.

The likely absence of Murray from the rebranded Fever-Tree Championships at Queen’s will be a blow for the tournament. He has won it five times, most recently in 2016.

On the upside, though, Queen’s will enjoy its strongest ever field in terms of rankings.

The entry list includes world number one Rafael Nadal, the 2014 champion Grigor Dimitrov, Nick Kyrgios, Denis Shapovalov and the new British number one, Kyle Edmund. —