Murray back but with ‘zero expectations’
ANDY MURRAY has declared himself fit to play this week’s Queen’s Championship after almost a year out, boosting his chances of being fit for Wimbledon. Murray has been out of competitive action for 340 days following hip surgery, and admits he goes into Tuesday’s showdown with Australian Nick Kyrgios with ‘zero expectations’. The double Wimbledon champion said: ‘I’m not pain free and I don’t expect to be, either. I have had an issue with my hip for eight years. ‘It’s obviously eleven months since I last competed. There are a lot of doubts though as well when you’ve not played for a long time. Coming back from injury you’re always second guessing yourself.’ Murray’s last competitive match was against Sam Querrey in the quarter-finals at last year’s Wimbledon.
AT 11.30 yesterday morning, 339 days after he last hit a ball in anger, word came down from on high at the Queen’s Club: Andy Murray had declared himself fit for this week’s Fever-Tree Championships.
Half an hour later there were gasps and titters of excitement at the draw ceremony, when his name was pulled out against that of Nick Kyrgios, the turbulent but still unfulfilled Australian talent.
Murray always knew there was a high chance of an awkward opening assignment in a tournament such as this, and so it is likely to prove.
Kyrgios came close to beating Roger Federer yesterday before losing a third-set tiebreak in the semi-finals of the Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart. If Murray were to win his opener he could theoretically meet the player who has usurped him as British No 1, Kyle Edmund.
Last night Murray broke cover, and confirmed that he stepped back from the court from early April, following a training block at t he Mouratoglou academy in France, until late last month.
‘I didn’t feel that great at the end of the block, I wasn’t responding as well as I hoped,’ he said. ‘I’m not pain free and I don’t expect to be, either, I have had an issue with my hip for eight years. But I have trained hard, kept myself in shape, I’ve eaten right, not ballooned in weight and gone off the rails.’
He feels happier than he was at Wimbledon last year: ‘I was in a pretty bad place then, I couldn’t really walk there at all and I still made the quarter- finals. In the back of my mind I always thought I could come back.
‘I have zero expectations at all, for how I play or how I do right now, it’s going to take some time. Maybe that will help me.’
Bar a couple of exhibition appearances in November and December he has not played at all in nearly 12 months.
Clearly he is moving better than he was during those brief outings, although he still looks short of being the ‘ 100 per cent’ that he pledged would be required before returning to the tour. He has also changed to lighter methods of training to ease the strain on his body.
‘I’ve been practising the last couple of weeks and building up each day,’ he said. ‘I started playing sets about a week ago. So, I played probably seven or eight sets, and I wanted to feel how I felt after playing a couple of sets with Cam [Norrie, on Friday].
‘I got tested by my physios this morning to make sure I hadn’t stiffened up and lost any range of motion in my hip which can happen when you’re tired and the hip’s a bit angry. That wasn’t the case. I pulled up pretty well, so then I decided to go for it.’
He admitted that there will be some nerves when he steps out: ‘ It’s obviously 11 months since I last competed. There are a lot of doubts though as well when you’ve not played for a long time.
‘Coming back from injury you’re always kind of second guessing yourself. You never know exactly when you’re going to be ready, but I’m looking forward to getting back out there and competing, I’ve missed that.’
Of the match against Kyrgios he said: ‘He’s got a brilliant serve and obviously he’s very talented. He’s unpredictable as well. The positive is that there probably won’t be loads of long points.’
Murray’s return is great news for the tournament, and great news for Murray’s bank account as well.
Not only did the Lawn Tennis Association, owners of this event, put on two Challengers in the spring in the hope that he would play them, he also gets a whopping annual guarantee to play at Queen’s, s o me t h i n g in the order of £500,000.
That is the sort of eye-watering treatment a top player can demand when they have won an event five times, as he has done here, plus a brace of Wimbledons.
Edmund will play American Ryan Harrison in the first round, while wildcard Dan Evans takes on Adrian Mannarino. Norrie faces Stan Wawrinka and Derby’s Jay Clarke takes on Sam Querrey. Late entrant Novak Djokovic will be up against a qualifier.
He’s back at last but with ‘zero expectations’ as Kyrgios awaits