‘Coronavirus gives Murray time to get comeback right’

next comeback, in doubles, at Queens Club, winning the title with Spaniard Feliciano Lopez.

Murray followed that up with a hugely impressive return to the singles tour, winning the Antwerp Open with a defeat of fellow grand slam champion, Stan Wawrinka, in the final.

And Henman, who will appear at the Brodies Tennis Invitational in Edinburgh in June, admits that Murray’s return to the sport after his injury issues has amazed him.

“I love the fact that he still wants to be out there trying to get back,” the Englishman said. “He’s really in unchartered territory because normally when you have an injury, there’s lots of others who have had that same injury but that’s not the case for Andy.

“There’s lots of people who have had new hips but not at the age of 32 and not those who want to get back to playing world-class tennis. So it’s amazing how well he’s done already.

“Injuries really go with the territory though when you’re a tennis player and you compete as much as they do, you’re going to get niggles. Federer has done as good a job as anyone of avoiding injuries but he’s out at the moment having had knee surgery. So it does happen and you just have to manage it and make sure you’re patient and you wait until you’re 100 per cent fit and healthy to come back.”

Murray may have been on the sidelines once again in recent months but he shows no signs of giving up the fight. With Novak Djokovic, Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer as well as the younger generation taking the game to the next level, Henman concedes that for Murray to get back to challenging for grand slam titles will take an almighty effort. But he is quick to point out that writing off the Scot is always a bad idea.

“It’s hard because time doesn’t stand still,” he said.

“He’s 32 years old and he’s not getting any younger and that’s where it’ll be hard because time isn’t on his side. But it’s amazing to come back and win a tournament on the tour – to win Antwerp like he did last year was an incredible achievement and I think he can get back playing even better than that.

“To compete over seven matches over five sets like he’ll need to do to win grand slam titles will be very, very difficult but as I’ve seen time and time again with Andy, if you say to him he can’t do something, he certainly likes to prove people wrong.”

There has been some talk that if Murray’s latest comeback does not go smoothly, he will potentially need to go under the knife again. But Henman is confident that from what he has seen of the former world No.1, things are going to plan and so another operation will not be required.

“Having watched him play this week, he was definitely pain-free and so I’d think at the moment, that doesn’t seem like it’ll be necessary,” said Henman.

“It’d be very frustrating if he did need another operation – any time you open up the body and have surgery, it takes time to recover so I’m sure he’s very keen to avoid that.”