Hip but no hooray for Murray
DEFEAT TO KYRGIOS ON ANDY’S COMEBACK AND HE STILL FEARS MISSING WIMBLEDON
ANDY MURRAY lost a bizarre three-set marathon on his return to tennis yesterday... and then warned he could yet miss Wimbledon.
The former world No.1 reported no issues with his hip as he went down 2-6 7-6 7-5 to Nick Kyrgios at the Fever-Tree Championships at Queen’s Club in London.
But despite his encouraging display in his first competitive match for 342 days, the Scot admitted he will wait to see how his aching body reacts before deciding when to play again. Wimbledon starts on July 2. “I won’t rule anything out just now,” said the world No.156.
“I won’t rule out playing at Eastbourne and not playing at Wimbledon. I wouldn’t rule out not playing a tournament next week and trying to get matches in an exhibition tournament to get ready for Wimbledon. I’m not sure yet. I’m really happy that I got on court today and played.
“It was a close decision because I really haven’t played a whole lot of tennis so I’m happy I got out there and competed and performed respectably.
“I’ll need to wait and see what happens over the next few days and chat with my team because I don’t know exactly what’s best for me just now.”
Murray, who said he felt “quite emotional” on his return, repeatedly felt his back in the third set as his comeback stretched to two hours and 39 minutes.
“The longest I have practised in the last year has been an hour and a half,” he said.
“Your body is thinking: ‘What’s going on? You should be in the locker room now.’
“The hip seemed to hold up well. I’m a bit stiff just now. My body will hopefully start to remember what it’s supposed to do – play tennis. That’s kind of what I have taught it to do since I was a kid.”
The always controversial Kyrgios (below) was so bad in the first set that BBC commentator Andrew Castle accused the world No.21 of “tanking”. The Aussie No.1, who said he suffered his own hip injury during the first set, admitted: “It was strange because on big points, when I won them, I almost felt bad if I showed any emotion. “I didn’t really want to get into his grill at all.”
British No.1 Kyle Edmund beat Ryan Harrison 7-6 6-4.
But Dan Evans lost 6-4 0-6 7-5 to Adrian Mannarino in his fifth event back since his drug ban and the former British No.2 must now wait until today to learn whether he has been granted a Wimbledon wild-card.