MURRAY ON THE MEND BUT IT’S K.O. FOR JO
WHILE Jo Konta may well have finished a season that has unravelled, Andy Murray appears to have taken a step forward in preparing for the next one.
The 30-year- old Scot has been seen this week practising indoors at the All England Club, back on court as opposed to doing pure rehab work in the gym on his troublesome hip.
Reportedly hitting with one of Britain’s junior players, Murray looks to be on track to play his scheduled charity exhibition match against Roger Federer in Glasgow on November 7.
Murray, who was ordered to take a prolonged rest after his lastminute withdrawal from the US Open, is aiming to make his full comeback at the Brisbane International in early January.
It may be that his opposite number in the women’s game, Konta, will also not be seen playing a competitive match again until the start of next year.
Yesterday the British No 1 announced she was pulling out of next week’s Kremlin Cup in Moscow, thereby handing the last place at the £5.3million WTA Finals in Singapore to France’s Caroline Garcia.
Konta would have needed to make the final to take the eighth and final spot in the year- end championship, on which she has now just missed out for the second season running.
Twelve months ago it was Svetlana Kuznetsova who pipped her, and this time it has been a late surge from Garcia, who won pointsrich titles back to back in China.
The GB No 1 first pulled out of this week’s Hong Kong Open, citing a foot injury on precautionary grounds, but now she has decided not to travel to Russia.
It constitutes quite a turnaround from making the semi-finals at wimbledon, which made Singapore qualification look a near certainty after her strong first half of the year.
Five straight defeats saw her slip back, and now her only issue is whether to take up the likely chance of a reserve place at the wTA Finals and then play Zhuhai in China, where the following week there is a lesser version of what happens in Singapore.
However, she may just try to regroup mentally, having looked completely out of touch in her last tournament in wuhan.
‘I’m very sad and disappointed to have to withdraw from the VTB Kremlin Cup because of my continuing foot injury,’ said Brit Konta.
The 26-year- old will probably end the season as world No 10 — the same ranking she had at the end of 2016.