MURRAY: I DON’T KNOW IF MY BODY WILL HOLD UP

ANDY IS DOWNBEAT FOR GRASS RETURN

Andy Murray returns today — and it is difficult to know if it is the beginning of his grass-court season or the beginning of the end.

The man himself did not seem convinced as he prepared for his first singles match since the start of March at the venue where he has won five titles.

The latest incarnation of this event at Queen’s is the cinch Championships and Murray will face tempestuous Frenchman Benoit Paire. He was definitely not looking further than that.

‘I feel OK, I don’t feel perfect,’ he admitted. ‘The question mark is whether the body holds up and I can’t say with great certainty right now whether that’s going to happen or not, because I have been feeling good at different points throughout the last nine months or so, practised really well, felt good going into tournaments.

‘Then, something’s happened or whatever happened in Miami (where he woke up with a groin strain). But I have been practising well over the last month or so, pretty consistently. I have been training at Wimbledon and we came out here the last few days and had a couple of good practices.’

While hitting sessions can be deceiving, yesterday afternoon’s did not look especially encouraging.

Murray (right) was fairly static, serving and having balls fed directly to him by coach Jamie delgado.

There was not much movement on show, and adding poignancy to the scene was that simultaneously on the Centre Court young Jack draper was suggesting the long-term future for British men’s tennis.

as ever with Murray there will be no lack of determination when he returns to one of his favourite courts, having aborted his plans to play on clay this spring.

‘I want to keep playing as long as I can,’ he said. ‘I know that I can still compete with the best players in the world. I have been doing it in practice over these last six months and certainly on the grass I don’t see why not.

‘My level is still good. It’s just I need my body to hold up, and it’s been extremely frustrating for me with all the different issues.’

He conceded to feeling envious seeing last week’s French Open semi-final between novak djokovic and rafael nadal.

‘ There is a bit of me that was jealous watching that, like I would love to be playing in those matches, love to still be competing with them in semis of Slams, I’m not going to try and hide that. The reason I’m still playing is that I love playing tennis.

‘It’s difficult to replace being out there and competing on a tennis court and playing sport at the highest level.’

He was not among those taken aback that djokovic had managed to turn around Sunday’s roland Garros final.

‘I wouldn’t say I was surprised because I have seen him come back from tough matches before and play great a few days later,’ said the Scot. ‘I think the way he turned the match around was obviously impressive. ‘ It was strange, though, because as soon as the break happened beginning of the third, I just didn’t see Stefanos Tsitsipas winning the match.

‘ novak changed his strategy and his game tactically, and I couldn’t see the match going any other way than novak’s after that moment.’