Andy heads for return as Jamie eases through at 02

AS Jamie Murray was raising the curtain at the O2 Arena yesterday, came a reminder not to forget his illustrious brother. While the older of the Scottish siblings was notching an opening doubles win at the Nitto ATP Finals, Andy was posting a video update on the latest stage of his rehab process over in Philadelphia. It was probably coincidence rather than trans-Atlantic fraternal rivalry, but by the time Jamie (below) and Bruno Soares had beaten Michael Venus and Raven Klaasen 7-6, 4-6, 10-5 we knew more about the state of his brother’s hip. During a year of sometimes reclusive behaviour it has broadly been a positive sign when Andy — who reached the world No 1 spot this time two years ago — is active on social media. In recent weeks his postings have included a picture of light at the end of a tunnel, and a promotional spiel for January’s Brisbane International, outlining his plans to train in Miami before heading early to Australia. Yesterday came a clip of him doing a gym circuit involving him athletically vaulting various objects, doing a cartwheel and a handstand. It looks promising enough and is further proof of how much faith he has placed in ‘reconditioning’ expert Bill Knowles, who has prepared many athletes for their comebacks. After wrapping up a truncated season in China, Murray has now been in Philadelphia for a month on this latest of several stints at the HP Sports facility that he started using after missing Wimbledon. His coach Jamie Delgado has been among the visitors and they have been on court together. The acid test will come in January, especially at the Australian Open, but the 31-year-old Scot is busy making plans for 2019. He is due to play tournaments in France in February at Montpellier and Marseille. Seeing was believing this season when he entered events long in advance but Marseille tournament director Jean-Francois Caujolle has stated that Murray approached him to play there.