MURRAY CLOSE TO COMEBACK
Andy Murray will begin practising again later this month and is sufficiently optimistic about his recovery from hip surgery that he could even return ahead of schedule.
Murray, 30, has always targeted the main part of the grass-court season for his comeback. The Scot had surgery on January 8 to try to fix a problem that has kept him out of the game since Wimbledon.
according to his management company, Murray has not ruled out returning before then — if all goes to plan once he has resumed hitting balls.
He could play a smaller event before the traditional Queen’s Club tournament, formerly the aegon Championships. It is believed that the event has lined up a new sponsor to be revealed in the next month.
Two possibilities for Murray would be the Challenger event at Surbiton during the second week of the French Open in early June, and the aTP Tour event on grass at Stuttgart which follows it.
The French Open in late May still looks a very long shot. Murray has never found the transition from clay to grass very easy, even when fully fit.
Murray, who on Monday will drop out of the world’s top 25 and be overtaken by Kyle Edmund as the British no 1, took a holiday after January’s trip to australia.
That began with him planning to play the Brisbane Open and ended with him recuperating after surgery in Melbourne.
He is now back in the gym lifting weights, doing Pilates and using the Versaclimber — a testing piece of apparatus which simulates the effect of climbing a never-ending ladder.
He is already planning to go away for some warm-weather training later this month, quite possibly to Miami.
Murray owns an apartment there and, as it would be during the Miami Open, there will be no shortage of high- class sparring partners in town.
Comebacks are the talk of tennis, with Serena Williams expected to return next week at Indian Wells in California.
rafael nadal, however, is a doubt for the first Masters event of the season. He continues to be troubled by knee problems and made a late withdrawal from this week’s aTP Tour tournament in acapulco.
Lower down the scale, former British no 2 dan Evans is another on the comeback trail, with his ban for cocaine use expiring in the last week of april.
under the terms of his suspension Evans is allowed to use official training facilities, in this case those of the Lawn Tennis association, for two months before returning to competition, and that window has opened.
He is due to meet British davis Cup captain Leon Smith this week to discuss a plan for him to get up to speed in time to resume playing at the lowly Futures tier of the tour.