The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Murray can take heart from comebacks by rivals
Nadal and Federer provide hope for Scot as he recovers from hip surgery
Andy Murray has started his long road to recovery after undergoing surgery on his right hip on Monday morning.
Murray, 30, has not played competitively since Wimbledon last summer and is targeting a return for the grasscourt season, which starts at Queen’s in mid-June.
If Murray and Novak Djokovic, another sidelined with injury, need inspiration on returning to the top of the sport, they only need to look at how Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer have fared since overcoming their own issues.
Here, Courier Sport looks at the injury travails Murray’s three biggest rivals have suffered in recent years.
Rafael Nadal
The Spaniard has won 16 grand slam titles but, unsurprisingly given the pressure his punishing style puts on his joints, has also battled injury issues throughout his career.
He managed a foot ailment in the early stages and then fought persistent knee injuries, with three straight-sets defeats at the 2009 ATP World Tour Finals seen by some as the beginning of the end.
Yet Nadal roared back by claiming the French Open, Wimbledon and US Open titles the following year.
He was then slowed by more problems with his knee, wrist and stomach but in 2017 he won multiple grand slam titles for the first time in four campaigns and the 31-year-old ended the term as tennis’ number one once more.
Roger Federer
Federer is another who has enjoyed a late-career renaissance. He looked to have been in decline back in 2013 when, in a year which saw him turn 32, a recurring back problem hampered him as he won just one ATP Tour final.
The rise of Djokovic and Murray made things harder for Federer and in 2016 Father Time seemed to be catching up with him when he underwent surgery, for the first time in his career, on his knee.
He was then troubled by a stomach bug, another back injury – which caused him to miss the French Open – and further knee complications, which prevented him from featuring at the Rio Olympics or US Open.
However, in 2017 Federer rolled back the years, winning grand-slam titles in Australia and at Wimbledon.
Novak Djokovic
Djokovic is just seven days Murray’s junior and his first serious injury issues have surfaced at around the same time.
The Serb was seemingly immune to medical problems as he rose to prominence and kept a remarkable level of consistency, at one point holding all four of the major titles after winning at Roland Garros in 2016.
But at Wimbledon last summer, Djokovic was forced to retire because of an elbow injury that he revealed had been bothering him for “a year-and-a-half”.
The following month he announced an extended hiatus. It came exactly one year after Federer went on a break following a knee problem. Djokovic, and indeed Murray, need only look at how the time off did the Swiss the world of good.