MURRAY AT RISK OF MISSING WIMBLEDON
As Andy admits he may need third hip surgery...
ANdy MuRRAy has admitted his dream of returning to Wimbledon this year is in the balance after he suffered further complications from hip surgery.
yet the two-time champion at SW19 is adamant that he will keep fighting to realise that ambition, and insists that in a best case scenario he could even be back playing tournaments a month from now. After keeping his own counsel since pulling out of the Australian Open just after Christmas, the 32-year- old Scot last night gave his first detailed update on the problems that have quashed the heartening recovery seen in the autumn.
On the positive side he returned late last week to practising on court again. More concerning is the admission that extra bone growth resulting from his second operation 13 months ago has been causing discomfort.
If a third surgical procedure is required to remove it, that would jeopardise his particpation in the grass- court season starting in June. He did not rule out playing in the Miami Open next month, or in the clay-court events that follow.
‘That’s what I hope but over the last couple of years I have become quite pessimistic about time frames because of what has gone on and what has been said to me,’ he summarised.
Small wonder he has had to become psychologically attuned to setbacks, this process having gone on since Wimbledon 2017.
His triumph at the European Open in Antwerp on October 20 seems an age ago. Since then he has reluctantly expanded his knowledge of the hip area, and he referred to the ‘heterotopic ossification’ that has been troubling him around the pelvis. He may not know until early summer whether it will require further surgery.
‘If I wasn’t able to have it until May, with six to eight weeks’ rehab, then that would mean missing that (grass-court) period,’ said Murray after a hit at Roehampton’s National Tennis Centre.
‘But hopefully the activity around this settles down. If I have to have that removed because it is causing the problem, then that is a pain in the a***.
‘I want to play in the Slams again. That is the thing I have missed over these last few years. Missing the Australian Open for me this year was rough. At the end of last season I was actually starting to play pretty well, I was feeling good and then this happened.
‘I don’t want to say I will definitely be in Miami playing — there is also the possibility I might have to have something done.’
Murray has not played since the davis Cup in december but he has kept up the mind-numbing business of rehab and fitness work in order to be ready to go, if — and there must be an if — he gets the all clear. ‘I do want to keep playing. Whether er I’m able to or not t is the question,’ he said. ‘Right now if you watch my session today, I’m fine. But there’s a difference between what I’m doing g today and playing g high-level tennis.’ ’
He described his situation as ‘unbelievably elievaplaining: complex’, explaining: ‘Because of the metal in the hip, it is extremely difficult to get a clear diagnosis because the metal on the scan makes it difficult to read them.
‘I started practising again a few days ago. I will really test the hip out. Hopefully it responds fine but if it doesn’t, then I need to potentially have that ( bone growth) removed. I should know by the end of next month whether I’m good to play or not with it.
‘I don’t have an injury as such. If this is what the issue is, then it’s a calcification, an impingement. It’s just whether that settles with time and the body gets used to it and wwhether I am able to manage it when playing.’ Even if Miami proves optimistic toptimistic there is the clay- court season to follow. ‘In many ways, the clay should be better for a metal joint because it is softer impact-wise,' he said. Seeing will be believing, but, as ever, Murray will not die wondering whether he worked himself enough — in this case to try to squeeze a final chapter out of his career. DAN EVANS yesterday scored his fourth win of the season over a top-20 player when he defeated world No 11 Fabio Fognini 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 to make the second round of the dubai Championships. He plays France’s PierreHugues Herbert next. In the Mexican Open, Kyle Edmund beat Spain’s Feliciano Lopez 6-4, 6-1.