The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
A disappointed Andy Murray leaves court after defeat in the first round of the doubles at Eastbourne yesterday ended his winning return from surgery.
Scot struggles with serve in first-round doubles defeat with Melo
Andy Murray’s winning return from injury ended with a first-round doubles defeat in the Nature Valley International at Eastbourne yesterday.
After winning the doubles title at Queen’s last week alongside Feliciano Lopez, the former world number one crashed out as he and partner Marcelo Melo lost in straight sets.
Colombian top seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah eased to victory on the south coast, running out 6-2 6-3 victors.
Murray underwent hip surgery in January and there was a suggestion the two-time Wimbledon champion would have to retire.
But he has made his comeback, albeit in doubles, and will now look forward to Wimbledon where he is due to play with Pierre-Hugues Herbert.
The 32-year-old Scot could yet also take part in the mixed doubles at SW19, but yesterday’s defeat at Eastbourne may affect that decision.
“I spoke to some of the doubles players the last few days about why they don’t always play mixed and they just said they had some situations where the weather has not always been so good,” he told BBC Sport.
“And because doubles is best-of-five (sets), and you play with the advantage scoring, you can get backed up and end up playing four matches in two days.
“I just need to be certain that my body’s ready for that.”
Murray struggled with his serve and was broken in the opening game.
He and Melo immediately brought up four break points on Farah’s serve, but the Scottish-Brazilian pairing could not convert any of them and they would be their only break points of the match.
A Murray volley into the net gave up another break and the Colombians comfortably wrapped up the first set.
The Scot was broken to love in the third game of the second set and, although he held serve at the fourth attempt, there was to be no comeback.
“They just played a lot better than us today. They got off to a quick start and deserved to win,” said Murray.
Farah and Cabal next face British pairing Dan Evans and Lloyd Glasspool.
After his Queen’s success, Murray had left the door open for a potential singles return at the US Open in August after a successful and, crucially, pain-free week.
He said: “I think I have a couple of options after Wimbledon – either I continue with doubles but start training and practising singles through the US Open swing, and then try and maybe play singles after that.
“Or I take a longer break postWimbledon of maybe, let’s say, a month or six weeks, to get myself ready for singles, and then try and play close to the US Open time.”