I HOPE TO BE OK
Limping Murray’s verdict on his Wimbledon fitness
ANDY MURRAY and Jo Konta will try to meet the expectations of their home public at Wimbledon next week with significant doubts over their exact levels of fitness.
The British men’s No 1, the defending Wimbledon champion, grimaced and gurned his way through a couple of practice sessions at the All England Club yesterday, while his female counterpart was scratched from her semi-final at Eastbourne’s Aegon International, citing a back injury.
The likelihood remains that both will make Monday’s opening day as the host nation basks in the possibilities of having the top seed in the men’s singles and the No 6 in the women.
After yesterday’s first session, Murray responded to questions about whether he would be able to play after a hip problem, saying: ‘I hope so, that’s the plan.’ After the second, he commented: ‘The session was good. I’m OK.’
After two days of rest and treatment Murray
returned to the All England Club, moving gingerly on to the grass after the morning’s draw had kept him in the opposite half from veteran favourite Roger Federer.
There was plenty of mixed body language for onlookers to digest, with the 30-year-old Scot limping around for much of the time and stretching his left hip. If this was any tournament other than Wimbledon you suspect he would not be playing.
However, in the final analysis he was able to complete two hitting sessions of an hour and a half each. Murray’s relative silence has fanned the flames of explanation, although his coach Ivan Lendl was upbeat about him on Thursday afternoon.
Murray looked like he was moving better by the end, and was able to swivel into his trademark doublefisted backhand.
It would only be natural for Murray to be carrying plenty of tension around with him in the week before Wimbledon, defending his title after a season that has been disrupted by illness and injury.
Today is the 40th anniversary of Virginia Wade winning Wimbledon and her possible successor will spend it having treatment on her upper back after taking a heavy fall in Thursday’s Eastbourne quarter-final.
‘I’m still quite sore through my thoracic spine,’ said world No 7 Konta. ‘Next week is Wimbledon but I made this decisioncision based on looking after my health. I didn’t sleep too oo well. It’s the upper back k but I can move my y neck.’
Asked when she will be fit again, she said: ‘We’re not 100 per cent certain yet. Things will ll become clearer in the he next 24 hours of how we manage things. The most important thing now is to rest well today and over the next 24 hours and then we’ll see.’
The British pair are due to play on Monday, with Murray occupying the traditional 1pm defending champion’s slot. He was drawn against Sasha Bublik, the world No 134 from Kazakhstan, who gained a ‘lucky loser’ slot after falling in the final round of qualifying.
Murray’s last opponent, Australian Jordan Thompson who beat him at Queen’s, was also a lucky loser, and Bublik has already sprung a Grand Slam upset this year by beating 16th seeded Frenchman Lucas Pouille in the Australian Open first round.
Konta has the chance of avenging her first-round loss at the French Open when she plays the same opponent, Hsieh Su-wei, who in Paris looked better than her world ranking of 112. As Konta tries to make her first serious run at Wimbledon the draw is not especially kind as in the second round she could meet Donna Vekic, who beat her in the Nottingham final two weeks ago. Northampton’s Alex Ward, the world No 855 who came through the qualifying event to make the main draw, was rewarded with a match against British No 2 Kyle Edmund, who is trying to break his singles duck at Wimbledon.
Overall Murray looks to have got a reasonably benign draw and, all things being equal, it is hard to envisage him not making the second week, when he could meet the dangerous Australian Nick Kyrgios in the fourth round. After that he would be due to meet Stan Wawrinka and then Rafael Nadal before facing either Novak Djokovic or Federer in the final.
Of course it is unlikely to work out that way. Federer will not have too many complaints about his draw but Djokovic has a treacherous path, facing big-hitting Martin Klizan first up and the prospect of a third round against Juan Martin Del Potro.