HIT AND HOPE
Murray back practising as he eyes Wimbledon return
ANDY MURRAY last night finally broke his silence on his long-awaited comeback from injury — insisting he is still aiming to be fit in time for Wimbledon.
The 31-year-old Scot announced his withdrawal from the Libema Open in Rosmalen, Holland, but did not rule out being fit for the Fever-Tree Championships at Queen’s Club nor Wimbledon, which begins on July 2.
‘It is with regret that I won’t be ready to play in Hertogenbosch (Rosmalen),’ he said. ‘I was excited to play there for the first time but I am not quite ready to return. I am still aiming to play in the coming weeks but I want to be 100 per cent when I do return.’
Earlier yesterday, during a plug for his car sponsor, he had given a brief update: ‘I’m getting closer to playing again, I’ve started training a few days ago, hoping to make my comeback during the grass-court season.
‘It’s been very slow, I’ve been out getting close to a year now which is a lot longer than I expected at the
beginning.’ While pointing to Roger Federer as an obvious contender for Wimbledon, Murray added: ‘I’m hoping I will be there.’ As ever through this process, the twice Wimbledon champion has been deliberately vague about the progress of his injury but at least he is back training. This was, however, the fourth time since last year’s quarter-final at SW19 that he has made a late withdrawal from a tournament he had planned to play. There was the US Open last September then the Brisbane International in early January followed by the Australian Open. Had the recovery gone to plan, he would have come back at one of the two recent Challenger events in Glasgow or Loughborough, although he never formally entered either of them. Decoding his public statements can be a tricky business, such as when the Antipodean grand slam issued an official press release quoting him saying that he was heading back to the UK ‘to assess all the options’. It turned out he would have surgery in Melbourne. It remains unclear the extent to which he will be able to prepare fully. And grass is not the easiest surface on which to start back, given the slick nature of the courts in the opening days. Expectations should be tempered — as those who bought Rosmalen tickets can already attest. Yet it is a positive development that he has resumed practice and, as Murray has shown many times before, when he sets his mind to something, he can surprise a lot of people.