Murray keeping the door open for Wimbledon entry

Andy Murray continued to keep his own counsel last night on his plans for Wimbledon, although the longer we go without news, the more likely it must be that he will enter.

The time for prevarication runs out today at 10am, when the draw is made. Yes, Murray could withdraw after that but, if he did, he would be requiring a so-called “lucky loser” from the qualifying event to be substituted into the field.

Speaking yesterday at the Women’s Tennis Association’s event on the Thames, Murray’s mother, Judy, remained equally opaque.

“He’ll have to make his mind up today because they are making the draw tomorrow,” she said.

“He’s dipped his toe in the water in the last couple of weeks to try to get some matches and see where his body is at. I guess it will depend on how he feels towards the end of the day, if he feels he is ready for five-set matches, so who knows?”

Murray has played three matches in the last two weeks, losing in three sets to Nick Kyrgios in the Fevertree Championships at Queen’s Club before scoring a win (against Stan Wawrinka) and a defeat (against Kyle Edmund) in the Nature Valley International at Eastbourne.

After Wednesday’s 6-4, 6-4 defeat at Edmund’s hands, Murray said: “I have made decent improvements the last couple of weeks and have been somewhat competitive in the matches that I have played.

“But I don’t want to go out there to just play. I want to be able to compete properly. If I don’t feel like I can do that, then I won’t play.”

It is worth pointing out, however, that this is exactly the sort of scenario Murray said he wanted to avoid when he spoke to reporters from his hospital bed on Jan 9.

“I want to come back when I’m fit and ready to play,” he said, “not to get into a situation like in Brisbane or New York, where I’m unsure when I turn up how fit I am.”

Meanwhile, Britain’s last remaining representative in the Wimbledon qualifying event – James Ward, the Davis Cup stalwart – was eliminated in the final round yesterday by Benjamin Bonzi of France.

Ward’s 6-4, 6-2, 1-6, 6-0 defeat meant that none of the 15 Britons who entered the event survived to play in the main draw.