Murray: Sometimes I wondered whether comeback was worth it
Andy Murray hailed “one of the toughest wins that I’ve had” after scoring the first singles victory recorded on the ATP tour by a man with a metal hip. In his post-match analysis, Murray also revealed that the past nine months of rehab had been so challenging that he had considered giving up.
British sports lovers should be glad he did not. Murray has been inching closer to a competitive level of tennis ever since he underwent his “resurfacing” operation on Jan 28. But yesterday’s 6-3, 6-7, 6-1 first-round win over Tennys Sandgren at the Zhuhai Championships in China was the moment when it came together in earnest, and we saw flashes of the player who contended with the elite group of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic for so many years.
Admittedly, the opposition was not as stiff on this occasion. Sandgren is the world No 69. Oddly, Murray was facing him for the second time in successive matches on the ATP tour, having suffered a frustrating loss in the first round of the Winston-salem tournament on Aug 20. There were many contrasts between that match in Winstonsalem and yesterday’s victory. This time, the best thing about Murray’s game was his serve, which was accurate and speedy, racking up 13 aces. Sandgren never brought up a break point, and only managed to steal the second set on a tie-break. Murray then found his best tennis of the match, reeling off the first four games of the deciding set. “It’s one of the toughest wins I’ve had in terms of all that’s gone into getting back to this point,” he said after his 2hr 41min success. “Obviously after the operation in January it’s been difficult and I was undecided at times about whether I wanted to keep going or not.” Now ranked at No 413, Murray’s next appointment will come tomorrow against one of the most fleet-footed young players on the tour, Australian 20-year-old Alex de Minaur, who is ranked No31. “If I got nine matches in the three weeks I was here I would think that would be a really, really good trip,” Murray said. “Tonight was a really good match to get through, but I’ll see how I recover tomorrow.”