Andy Murray: Potentially I Could Play Singles At The US Open
After a successful, pain-free return from hip surgery last week at Queen’s, Andy Murray is leaving the door open for a return in singles, as early as the US Open.
“Potentially, yeah,” Murray said of playing singles at the US Open. “But I don’t care, really, either way. Like, it would be nice to play at the US Open, but if I don’t — look, I got so much enjoyment and happiness after winning a first-round doubles match here that, you know, that’s enough.
“I’m happy with playing tennis and training and having no pain anymore. If I keep progressing, I would like to try to play singles. I think I have a couple of options, like, after Wimbledon, is either I continue with doubles but start training and practicing singles through the US Open swing, and then try and maybe play singles after that. Or I take a longer break post-Wimbledon of maybe, let’s say, a month or six weeks to get myself ready for singles and then try and play close to the US Open time.
“I guess those would be sort of the two options. I don’t anticipate it would be much longer than that. My schedule, you know, could potentially be a bit different. I might not play three weeks in a row or two weeks back to back, for example.
“But I’m just quite happy doing what I’m doing just now and just taking each week as it comes. You know, if things keep going well, I’ll try and play singles. If I start training and I think actually I’m not going to compete at a level I’m happy with, yeah.
“And I know in Australia I didn’t anticipate playing doubles, but I also didn’t anticipate feeling like this and enjoying playing tennis like this, either. You know, we’ll see what happens.”
Murray will be in the doubles events this week in Eastbourne with Marcelo Melo then he’ll join Pierre-Hugues Hebert in the doubles draw at Wimbledon.
The 32-year-old Murray is ranked down at No. 214, but singles wildcards would surely be available at any event he desires to play.
Of course the pounding on hard courts on his hip (especially in best-of-5) would be much greater than playing doubles on the grass.
It will be interesting to see how he does in doubles during the summer hard courts.
“I still have to improve quite a few things, like, physically,” he said. “It’s not just to get back on the court playing singles. Like, it’s to protect my hip for the longer term to make sure that my muscles are in the correct balance so that I’m not impacting the hip in the same spot all of the time.
“I need to improve the range of motion in my hip, as well, like, you know, so that when I’m changing direction and things that there is a bit more freedom for it to move around.”
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