MURRAY’S OFF TO OZ
ANDY Murray was last night on his way to Australia to prepare for his comeback at next week’s Brisbane International.
An unexpectedly busy day in Abu Dhabi ended with him dashing to the airport to make the last flight to Queensland, where he will line up for the first regular tournament of the season.
Murray had earlier appeared as a surprise late substitute for Novak Djokovic — suffering from a recurrence of his elbow injury — to play a one-set match against world No 20 Roberto Bautista Agut at the Mubadala World Tennis exhibition event.
Despite clearly being still below his physical peak, the 30-year-old Scot was reasonably competitive in losing 6-2 to a high- class opponent who appeared to be playing flat out.
After a brief conference with his team, Murray decided that he was encouraged enough to head to one of the principal warm-up tournaments for next month’s Australian Open.
‘I felt better as it went on,’ he said. ‘Obviously I was a little slow at the start. When you haven’t competed for a while it takes time to get up with the pace. I will need to keep improving. I was lucky to be able to come out and play. It was good fun, I’ve missed it.’
Murray looked sharper from 0-4 down, but sometimes struggled to reach wide balls with his usual alacrity. There was a slight limp but considering he has only played a charity match against Roger Federer since Wimbledon he struck it sweetly enough.
His improvement curve will, nonetheless, have to be steep if he is to be a factor in Melbourne, starting on January 15.
The unexpected news of Djokovic’s renewed elbow problems came as a shock, with the Murray camp stressing that they were not aware of any need for the Scot to be on standby.
It is a worrying development for the Serb, who earlier this week had talked bullishly about his comeback both in terms of his physical state and mental appetite.
Having not played since Wimbledon, his preparations had been full steam ahead, but it appears that stepping up intensity in recent days had taken a toll.
‘This might affect the start of the season and the tournament plan, the decision will be made in the coming days,’ he said, conceding that his participation in Australia is in doubt.