Five-set tennis ‘step too far’ for Andy Murray

Tim Henman believes competing in multiple rounds of five-set matches with limited recovery time “may be a step too far” for former world No 1 Andy Murray.

Murray is set to play at the US Open from August 30, for what will be his first grand slam tournament since pulling out of the Olympic singles event in Tokyo last month with a thigh injury.

The 34-year-old was encouraged by his movement during the recent Cincinnati Masters, in which he was knocked out by world No 13 Hubert Hurkacz in the second round, and Henman believes his improvement is evident.

“I think it (his recovery) has been great. You want to look at his trajectory of his path of improvement, and the way he played at Cincinnati last week,” Henman said.

“It was a good win against (Richard) Gasquet who’s still a top50 player, against Hurkacz, who’s one of the form players, it was a tight match and he had set points in the first set.

“If the Andy Murray of today played the Andy Murray of the first round of Queen’s I think he beats him very easily and so things seem to be moving in the right direction. The biggest challenge is whether he can stay injury-free, he’s been so stop-start for the last four years.”

He added: “We can’t really judge where Andy’s level is at unless he plays three, six, nine months of tournament tennis.

“If he’s able to do that I think he can improve his level significantly from where he’s at now.

“Can he compete bestof-five-set matches in slams and come back with the recovery? I think that may be a step too far but certainly on the tour and in the ATP Masters I definitely think he can be competitive.”

After going out in Cincinnati, Murray decided to get in more match practice at the Winston-Salem Open, before heading to New York and the US Open.

It has been a difficult last four years for the Scot, including two hip surgeries, one in 2018 and one the following year with a groin injury and a thigh problem also among the recent setbacks.

“I love to hear his motivation,” said Henman.

“When we did an interview with him for Prime Video in Cincinnati, he really didn’t feel like he was at the end of his career, he wanted to keep playing and keep challenging himself and I think that’s absolutely right.

“(Being) a professional athlete is the best job in the world and it doesn’t last forever so as long as he has the hunger and desire and motivation to keep putting the work in, and he feels like he’s being rewarded enough on the court, then he should play as long as he wants to.”

● Heather Watson is out of the Chicago Women’s Open after retiring from her firstround match against Ana Bogdan due to injury. The Briton had lost the first set 6-2 and was 1-0 down in the second when she was forced to pull out 51 minutes into the contest.

Andy Murray will compete in US Open next week.