Andy shoots from hip in first match after injury

ANDY Murray (right) said he was feeling “decent” after finally making his comeback following 11 months on the sidelines, but has not ruled out missing Wimbledon.

The t hree-time grand slam champion played his first competitive match since SW19 last year – 342 days ago – and put in a spirited display in going down to a three-set defeat to Nick Kyrgios at the Fever-Tree Championships at Queen’s Club.

Murray, who went under the knife on his hip problem in January, battled hard throughout before eventually going down to a 2-6 7-6 (7/4) 7-5 loss.

He will see how if fully recovers before deciding when to play next but said it is not a given he will be at Wimbledon next month.

“I won’t rule anything out just now,” he said. “I won’t rule out playing Eastbourne and not playing Wimbledon.

“I wouldn’t rule out not playing a tournament next week and trying to get matches i n an exhibition tournament as well to get ready for Wimbledon.

“I’m not sure yet. I’m really happy that I got on the match court. You know, it was a close decision.

“I have not been practising loads at all. I have been hitting for a couple of weeks and the beginning was only like 30 minutes or so.

“I really haven’t played a whole lot of tennis, so I’m happy I got out there and competed and performed respectably.

“I’ll kind of need to wait and see what happens the next few days and chat with my team about that, because I don’t know exactly what’s best for me just now.”

Murray did not appear to be troubled by any hip pain during the gruelling two-hour-39-minute match, though he knows the true test will be how he recovers over the next few days.

“I’m a bit stiff just now,” he said. “I’ve got kind of normal stuff that you would get after maybe playing on a grass court for the first time in a while.

“At the most, the longest I have practised in the last year has been an hour-and-a-half.

“So I’m feeling decent, considering that.

“But hopefully I’m not too sore in the hip after a match like that, and I also physically will have gained a lot from it as well.”

Kyrgios, ironically, was battling his own hip problem but was able to come through after looking like he was going to be blown away.

Murray won the first set 6-2 after the Australian went rogue, losing four games in a row, which included a service game with four double faults.

The pair are good friends off court and Kyrgios said: “It was kind of good to see him back out there, but it was a very awkward match for me because I was thinking the guy hadn’t played a match in a year, and I was getting smoked in the first set.”