Zhuhai, China: Andy Murray said Sunday it would be “naive” and “silly” to think he will ever return to being the player that surged to number one in the world.
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The 32-year-old Briton, a three-time Grand Slam champion, is on a long comeback trail after undergoing career-saving hip resurfacing surgery in January.
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He is now free of pain, and this week will compete at the Zhuhai Championships – the first of three tournaments he is scheduled to play in China in the next three weeks.
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Murray believes this crucial period in his rehabilitation will provide some answers as to how good he can be again – but is under no illusions about the longer term.
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“Honestly, I’m not expecting to get back to my very best,” Murray, now ranked 413 in the world, told AFP in Zhuhai.
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“I think it would be probably a bit naive and silly to think that would be the case.
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“I do feel like tennis-wise I can still compete at the highest level in terms of my skill, it’s just whether physically I can get to a high enough level to be competitive right at the top.
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“I’ve still got quite a ways to go in that respect, I don’t know exactly where the end point is.
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“Probably until I stop improving, I’ll then have to make a call (about his future).
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“If my improvement stopped today, I probably wouldn’t be happy playing at the level I’m at just now.”
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No fears of retirement
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Murray, who surged to the top of the world rankings in 2016, Tennys Sandgren, ranked 69, at the inaugural event in Zhuhai, southern China this week.
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Last month, in only his second singles match since his operation, Murray narrowly lost to the American.
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The Briton then competed in a lower-level Challenger event in Spain, as he attempts to rebuild his creaking body for the rigours of elite tennis.
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Although Murray lost in the last 16 in Mallorca against the unheralded Matteo Viola, he was pleased he came through three matches in four days without any complications.
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Murray says that he is enjoying the comeback journey, but having several months away from tennis changed his perspective and he is now “looking forward” to retirement.
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“Tennis has always been a huge part of my life, but I realised probably then that actually my health was the most important thing for a happy life and I had always probably been worried about what life might look like after tennis,” he said.
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“I had a glimpse these last few months and it was brilliant.
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“I was just in no pain, just doing lots of different things, hanging out with friends and family, and it was great.
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“So I am looking forward to when I do stop playing eventually.
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“But while I am not in pain just now, I will try to keep playing tennis because I enjoy it.”
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‘Not enjoying it’
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After Zhuhai, the China Open in Beijing and the Shanghai Masters, Murray will return to Europe to compete in the European Open in Antwerp, making it a testing next month.
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Winning “a couple of matches” at each tournament would be a success, he said, with building up his speed and stamina the priorities on the tortuous road to recovery.
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If that sounds like low expectations, Murray, a two-time Wimbledon champion and Olympic gold medallist, is just happy being pain-free.
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“The last two, three years – two years for sure – I was not enjoying playing, I wasn’t enjoying training,” he said.
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“I was not enjoying any of it because it was painful and uncomfortable.”
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