Andy Murray said on Friday it is “likely” he will play at Wimbledon, although he cautioned that his opponent in the first round on Tuesday, Benoît Paire, the last player the two-time champion beat at the All England Club before he limped off the Tour a year ago, was “very tricky for me”.
So, after days of indecision and serial reappraisal of his game and his fitness, it still looks as if Murray will leave his call until the last moment. Unseeded while recuperating from hip surgery in January, he is in the same quarter as the world No 1, Rafael Nadal. But that does not seem to be his main concern.
Others in his section include the fifth seed, Juan Martín del Potro, the rising Canadian teenager Denis Shapovalov, Jack Sock, David Goffin, Diego Schwartzman, Fabio Fognini and the Italian who came from nowhere at Roland Garros, Marco Cecchinato.
Kyle Edmund, Murray’s successor as the British No 1, opens against Australia’s Alex Bolt, with Novak Djokovic a possible third-round opponent. Roger Federer, the No 1 seed, will begin his bid for a record-extending ninth Wimbledon title against the Serb Dusan Lajovic while the sixth seed, Grigor Dimitrov, meets the three-time grand-slam champion Stan Wawrinka.
Hours after the draw was made, Murray arrived at Wimbledon for afternoon practice, looking good against the young Scot Aidan McHugh on Court 14 after an hour’s precision serving on the Aorangi Park practice courts.
“I think it’s likely, yeah,” he said immediately afterwards. “Obviously if anything happened tomorrow … I don’t know. I can’t predict how I’ll feel tomorrow. As for the draw, I could have played one of the top players in the world but where I am now, Paire in the first round is tricky for me. He’s a very challenging guy.”
As he has been on court for 15 years, so he remains away from it: virtually impossible to read. Rivals, locker-room friends, fans, family and all of tennis would welcome Murray on his return to his favourite workplace after the year-long exile he endured while resting his body and damaged hip. But they all know he will not be the same player who has delivered countless memorable moments since he arrived at Wimbledon as a teenager in 2005. He would love to win a third title but he maintains he has “zero expectations”.
Roger Federer (1) v Dusan Lajovic
Lukas Lacko v Benjamin Bonzi
Ivo Karlovic v Mikhail Youzhny
Jan-Lennard Struff v Leonardo Mayer (32)
Adrian Mannarino (22) v Christian Garin
Ryan Harrison v Roberto Carballes Baena
Guillermo García-López v Gastao Elias
Daniil Medvedev v Borna Coric (16)
Sam Querrey (11) v Jordan Thompson
Sergiy Stakhovsky v João Sousa
Laslo Djere v Paolo Lorenzi
Gaël Monfils v Richard Gasquet (23)
Philipp Kohlschreiber (25) v Evgeny Donskoy
Gilles Muller v Michael Mmoh
John-Patrick Smith v Andreas Seppi
Norbert Gombos v Kevin Anderson (8)
Marin Cilic (3) v Yoshihito Nishioka
Jason Kubler v Guido Pella
Ricardas Berankis v MacKenzie McDonald
Nicolas Jarry v Filip Krajinovic (28)
Lucas Pouille (17) v Denis Kudla
Peter Polansky v Dennis Novak
John Millman v Stefano Travaglia
Liam Broady v Milos Raonic (13)
John Isner (9) v Yannick Maden
Steve Johnson v Ruben Bemelmans
Aljaz Bedene v Cameron Norrie
Radu Albotv Pablo Carreño-Busta (20)
Stefanos Tsitsipas (31) v Grégoire Barrère
Malek Jaziri v Jared Donaldson
Yuki Bhambri v Thomas Fabbiano
Stan Wawrinka v Grigor Dimitrov (6)
Dominic Thiem (7) v Marcos Baghdatis
David Ferrer v Karen Khachanov
Julien Benneteau v Marton Fucsovics
Frances Tiafoe v Fernando Verdasco (30)
Kyle Edmund (21) v Alex Bolt
Yuichi Sugita v Bradley Klahn
Guido Andreozzi v Horacio Zeballos
Tennys Sandgren v Novak Djokovic (12)
Nick Kyrgios (15) v Denis Istomin
Marius Copil v Robin Haase
Bernard Tomic v Hubert Hurkacz
Christian Harrison v Kei Nishikori (24)
Damir Dzumhur (27) v Maximilian Marterer
Ernests Gulbis v Jay Clarke
Lorenzo Sonego v Taylor Harry Fritz
James Duckworth v Alexander Zverev (4)
Juan Martín Del Potro (5) v Peter Gojowczyk
Feliciano López v Federico Delbonis
Benoît Paire v Andy Murray
Jeremy Chardy v Denis Shapovalov (26)
Jack Sock (18) v Matteo Berrettini
Gilles Simon v Nikoloz Basilashvili
Albert Ramos-Viñolas v Stephane Robert
Matthew Ebden v David Goffin (10)
Diego Schwartzman (14) v Mirza Basic
Jiri Vesely v Florian Mayer
Pablo Cuevas v Alexandr Dolgopolov
Taro Daniel v Fabio Fognini (19)
Marco Cecchinato (29) v Alex De Minaur
Pierre-Hugues Herbert v Mischa Zverev
Vasek Pospisil v Mikhail Kukushkin
Dudi Sela v Rafael Nadal (2)
Seeds in bold
British players in italics
Murray won his fourth-round match against Paire last year, 7-6 (1), 6-4, 6-4, then hobbled away from the championships after five painful sets against the American Sam Querrey, which brought his season to a close.
It would be remarkable if we saw again, here or ever, the five-hour marathons and the grinding exchanges that drained those watching as much as they did Murray and his opponent. There will be the miracle saves and breathtaking winners from nowhere but the points will be shorter, the rallies quick and clinical. The movement will be more clipped and careful, too, as he eases his right hip back into full working order.
Radio silence enveloped Murray’s tight-knit camp in the past few days but a hint of his intentions emerged accidentally when Wimbledon listed him among the Saturday interviewees.
Murray, 31 last month and ranked 156 in the world, played three comeback matches in nine days. He agonised Wednesday night, all of Thursday and most of Friday about his capacity to compete in best-of-five-set matches at the highest level over the next fortnight. The internal conversation continues.
Nevertheless, after James Ward lost in the last qualifying match at Roehampton on Thursday, bringing the total of British failures there, men and women, to 15 from 15, Murray’s reappearance would be a timely boost. Despite the steady rise of Edmund, alongside Cameron Norrie’s emergence over the past year, the admirable self-belief of Johanna Konta, the lingering hope of Heather Watson and Jamie Murray’s continued excellence in doubles with the Brazilian Bruno Soares, British contenders are few.
The fact Murray is taking so long to make up his mind reminds us what a perfectionist he is – albeit an indecisive one. Murray said he is not concerned about injuring his hip again but he does not want to embarrass himself on the big stage. He knows time is not on his side and that he may have only two or three Wimbledon tournaments left in him. If he is still playing beyond the 2020 Olympics, it would be a triumph after all he has been through.
The onrush of the end is a prospect that has consumed him since he lost to Querrey. He was so desperate to get back on court after that, he waited until after the draw was made at the US Open in September before pulling out, and did the same in Brisbane and at the Australian Open in January.
Murray was nervous when he lost to Nick Kyrgios at Queen’s last week, yet he might have won their long three-setter. It was encouraging and uplifting. He learned little from beating a struggling Wawrinka at Eastbourne on Monday, then began to doubt himself after losing in two shorter sets to Edmund.
He has moved well enough during a total of five hours and 35 minutes of competitive tennis on his return, and has hit the ball with conviction off the ground, although fatigue has dulled the precision of his serve in his two longer matches.
Murray, unseeded at a slam for the first time since he lost to Marcos Baghdatis in the fourth round at Wimbledon in 2005, always had a one-in-four chance of drawing a seeded player. Paire, who took a set off him in Monte Carlo two years ago in their only other meeting, would seem to be as ideal an opponent as he could have hoped for. Murray is not so sure. Still.
In other stories from the men’s draw, Norrie will play Aljaz Bedene, who spent six years trying to qualify for Great Britain’s Davis Cup team before returning to Slovenia. Liam Broady will take on the Canadian world No 32 – and Murray’s victim in the 2016 final – Milos Raonic.
