Andy Murray will make his comeback at Queen’s Club this week, against the mercurial Nick Kyrgios, ending nearly a year of pain, indecision and gathering concern about his future. The Scot does not expect it to be easy.
The Australian arrives in London on Sunday on the back of a rousing semi-final performance against Roger Federer in Stuttgart, the Swiss needing all his smarts to soak up 23 aces in an hour and 51 minutes before advancing to the final against Milos Raonic with a 6-7 (2), 6-2, 7-6 (5) win that returned him to No 1 in the world.
They will almost certainly play on Tuesday, in Murray’s first competitive match since Sam Querrey defeated him in five sets in the Wimbledon quarter-finals on 12 July last year.
At the west London venue on Saturday the former world No 1 and five-times Queen’s Club champion broke a long media silence to reflect on his time away and what might lie ahead. He sounded upbeat but understandably cautious before a final workout on an outside court against the American Jared Donaldson.
“I’m looking forward to it,” Murray said. “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. You never know exactly when you’re going to be ready.
“I started playing sets about a week ago – probably seven or eight sets. I wanted to know how I felt the following day 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.
“That was all positive. I pulled up pretty well from that, so then I decided to go for it.”
As for his match against Kyrgios Murray said: “He plays extremely well on the grass. He’s got a brilliant serve and is very talented. He’s unpredictable as well. The positive is that there probably won’t be loads of long points. Points can be quite sharp with him, which is good, but it’s a very tricky match. Having missed 11 months, I’m expecting to be very nervous when I go back out there.”
Murray went away from the All England Club last summer nursing a long-term injury to his left hip that forced him to withdraw from the 2017 US Open and the Brisbane Open over the new year, before having hip surgery in Melbourne on 8 January, which forced his withdrawal from the Australian Open.
He has worked hard since then to repair the physical damage and his dormant game, even getting ahead of his own timetable before encountering a setback in April.
He put his name down for a hardcourt tournament in Washington in August – which he might yet play – then made a tentative commitment to appear in a grasscourt ATP250 event in Rosmalen this week, before again pulling out at the last minute. He has also signed up for another hardcourt appearance in China in September, at Shenzhen.
But those dates are a long way off. Murray has much to prove to himself and an army of experts, commentators and fans before then.
Against Norrie Murray looked content but distant, ignoring the small clutch of tennis writers who were allowed to gather on the edge of an outside court to watch them hit for the first half-hour.
Norrie won the first set 6-3, Murray the second 7-5 – which was enough to convince him he could at least be competitive in a best-of-three-sets match at these Fever-Tree Championships.
He now has the chance to stress-test himself in competition to be sure he can survive the rigours of best‑of‑five matches at Wimbledon, which starts on 2 July – especially as he will be unseeded and could draw one of the favourites in the first round.
Queen’s Club will not be easy for Murray. Last week Kyrgios defeated the French Open surprise contender Maximilian Marterer in three sets and the 2017 Queen’s Club champion, Feliciano López, in the quarter-finals, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, to reach the Stuttgart semi-finals against Federer.
Murray has beaten the Australian in their five matches to date, most recently in the fourth round of Wimbledon on his way to winning the title for a second time in 2016. If they play here on Tuesday it will be 342 days after Murray’s last competitive match.
Fourteen of the world’s top 30, including the British No 1, Kyle Edmund, are playing at Queen’s Club – with Kyrgios, Novak Djokovic and Murray unseeded. Djokovic plays a qualifier. Edmund drew the American Ryan Harrison, who won their only match in three tight sets of the semi‑finals in Atlanta last year.
The British wildcard Dan Evans plays the French world No25, Adrian Mannarino while Jay Clarke, who also received a wildcard, plays Querrey. The No 1 seed, Marin Cilic, has a tough first opponent in Fernando Verdasco while, at the bottom of the draw, Grigor Dimitrov has drawn Damir Dzumhur, who took the world No 3, Alexander Zverev, to five sets in the third round of the French Open.
Murray’s last-minute decision to play meant the Frenchman Julien Benneteau had to go through with his qualifying match against the Italian Simone Bolelli on Saturday morning, winning 7-6, 4-6, 7-5; had the Scot pulled out, Benneteau would have been added to the main draw.
Dan Evans marches into final with comeback win
Former British No 2 Dan Evans came from behind to beat Marcel Granollers and book his place in the final of the Nature Valley Open in Nottingham. The 28-year-old is continuing his return from a drugs ban, but was soon put on the back foot by Granollers, who made the most of an early break to claim the opening set 6-4.
Evans, who has been given a wildcard for the Fever-Tree Championship at Queen’s Club next week, quickly responded with two breaks of the Spaniard’s serve to take the second set 6-2.
The tense deciding set went with serve until Evans finally converted a break point to lead 5-3 and then serve out for the match.
Evans completed his 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory over the world number 134 in just under two hours. He faces Australia’s Alex de Minaur in Sunday’s final.
