MURRAY WORRIED HE WILL HIT WALL

ANDY MURRAY began yesterday having to clear up the misunderstanding from a jokey comment on Twitter that he had set a date for marrying girlfriend Kim Sears. Having clarified that he will not be getting wed after Wimbledon, he set about the more pressing business of getting used to the temporary clay court inside San Diego’s main baseball stadium. Great Britain’s match against the USA, their first in the elite World Group knockout stages for six years, begins tomorrow on a surface designed to cause the Wimbledon champion more discomfort than any social media mix-up. While the setting at the home of the San Diego Padres is imaginative and dramatic, the British team described the surface as ‘very slippy’. But for Murray the question is whether he will be ready, after defeat in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open and back surgery in September, to play for three straight days, including Saturday’s doubles. Still suffering from jetlag after flying from Melbourne on Sunday, he has to weigh up whether he will take on world champions the Bryan brothers — most likely alongside Colin Fleming — as well as playing two singles matches. Murray said: ‘It’s a possibility, but I haven’t played on clay since my surgery so I don’t know how I will feel until after the first match. I’ve only played two tournaments since coming back but if I’m fit and healthy I’ll put my name forward. ‘If I play five sets on the first day I don’t know if I will be able to play all three.’ Murray appears unimpressed with British No 2 Dan Evans’s decision not to play a tournament last week, which contributed to him being dropped. ‘You need to play matches and show you want to be part of the team,’ said Murray. ‘He chose not to do that. To play one or two matches in a two-month span and then come in and expect to beat a guy who is ranked 10 or 20 in the world? At his level that is very challenging.’ James Ward or, more likely, Kyle Edmund will fill the second singles spot. American No 1 John Isner is a doubt for the US with the ankle trouble that affected him in Australia. Donald Young, the world No 79, is on standby.