Murray comeback plans in disarray
CONFIRMATION that Andy Murray’s comeback schedule has not gone to plan arrived yesterday when he was left off the list of wildcards for next week’s Loughborough Challenger event.
Following hip surgery in January, the twotime Wimbledon champion had originally pencilled in the tournament as a platform from which he would launch his return into the grass-court season.
Consultations with the Lawn Tennis Association earlier this year led them to hastily add the Challenger events in Glasgow last month and at the Midlands university town, in the expectation that they would host Britain’s greatest player.
But Murray’s recovery has clearly not gone as anticipated and, instead of a former world No1, Loughborough will host a smattering of low-ranked British players with another returning player, Dan Evans, featuring in the qualifying event.
Murray has not offered up any hint of his recovery status since doing some training at the Mouratoglou Academy in late March.
There has certainly been a halt to his training and it appears that the injury proved unco-operative when he tried to up the intensity. He has entered three events this summer, the first being the Dutch grass court ATP event in Rosmalen on June 11 followed by the Fever Tree Championships at Queen’s.
He is also being marketed as playing at the Citi Open in Washington DC at the end of July. However, those buying tickets are none the wiser as to whether he will appear.
Meanwhile, Maria Sharapova achieved her best result of a hitherto disappointing season when she reached the semi-finals of the Italian Open by outlasting world No6 Jelena Ostapenko in three hours and ten minutes of trench warfare at the Foro Italico.
The Russian’s return from a doping suspension in April last year has been marked by injuries and a failure to string together wins, but this 6-7, 6-4, 7-5 victory represented a fourth in four days and so far she has spent nine hours and 48 minutes on court.
Rafael Nadal suffered a rare dropped set but overcame home favourite Fabio Fognini 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 in their quarter-final clash in Rome to set up his first match for two years with Novak Djokovic, who defeated Kei Nishikori 2-6, 6-1, 6-3.